Is the US Athens and China Sparta, as Xi implied? I feel he misses the point. Yes, Sparta had the better military and won the Peloponnesian war, but was an autocratic, repressively rigid society that ultimately faded into obscurity. Athens's influence has reverberated through the centuries and even its ruins remain monumental.
Trump missed his opportunity for a clever rejoinding insult... if he even understood Xi's point.
Thucydides said that the real cause of the war was the rise of Athens and the fear that generated in Sparta. The “Thucydides Trap” refers to the high chance of war that accompanies a rising power challenging a dominant one. It has nothing to do with domestic regime type.
its ultimate undoing and relegated its influence to a very brief time and location... whereas Athen's influence reverberates worldwide through the centuries.
Culturally, the US is Athens and China is Sparta.
Trump is basically setting up spheres of regional dominance, and is acting in a manner consistent with Xi's point. China is an engineering and manufacturing powerhouse, BUT unlike the USA coming out of WW2, isn't exporting culture to go along with its wares, nor is it militarily aggressive. So, I can see a period of a couple decades of relatively peaceful and prosperous co-existence until the USA falls through internal sloth and moral decay.
