The United States and China Are Leaving a Dangerous Vacuum in Global Leadership
The reluctance of the world’s two foremost powers to uphold the international order risks a repetition of past traumas.
U.S. President Donald Trump tours the Hall of Prayer of Good Harvest with Chinese President Xi Jinping, May 14, 2026, at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Credit: The White House via Flickr
“Can China and the United States overcome the ‘Thucydides trap’ and establish a new paradigm for relations between great powers?” Chinese leader Xi Jinping put this question to his American counterpart, Donald Trump, when the two leaders met in Beijing in May. Thucydides, an Athenian general and historian, wrote a seminal account of the Peloponnesian War, which destroyed the Greek city-state system by the end of the fifth century. He traced the conflict to two factors: the rise of Athens
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California-based Jupiter Systems sold high-tech wall screens to U.S. military and government clients. On June 14, The Wire China revealed how Jupiter was sold to a Chinese company in 2020 without the first Trump administration’s knowledge. Now Trump is back and on the case as Jupiter teeters on the verge of bankruptcy.
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