Chinese President Xi Jinping opened his meeting with President Donald Trump in Beijing by invoking concerns about a potential future conflict between the United States and China, framing the moment as a critical test for relations between the two global powers.

During his opening remarks inside the Great Hall of the People, Xi pointed to the concept known as the Thucydides trap, which describes the dangers that arise when a rising power challenges an established one.

“The whole world is watching our meeting,” Xi began inside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, with Trump seated across the table.

He went on to describe a rapidly shifting global landscape and warned of instability shaping international affairs.

“Currently, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent,” he continued, according to one translation of his remarks. “The world has come to a new crossroads.

“Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations? Can we meet global challenges together and provide more stability for the world? Can we, in the interest of the well-being of our two peoples and the future of humanity, build a brighter future together for our bilateral relations?”

Xi has referenced the Thucydides trap for years, a theory popularized by Harvard professor Graham Allison and rooted in the writings of the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who described how Athens’ rise led Sparta to view war as unavoidable.

He characterized the issues facing Washington and Beijing as “questions vital to history” and to “the world and to the people.”

President Trump, speaking after Xi, did not directly engage with those warnings but struck an optimistic tone about future ties between the two nations.

“The relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before.”

“It’s an honor to be with you. It’s an honor to be your friend,” Trump said.

“I really look very much forward to our discussion,” he added. “It’s a big discussion. There are those that say, this is maybe the biggest summit ever.”

The meeting between the two delegations lasted roughly two hours inside the Great Hall.

Despite Xi’s pointed framing, some analysts suggested his message was less about confrontation and more about reassurance.

“What Xi Jinping said in that speech is that we can transcend the Thucydides trap,” Sky News Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith said. “So what he’s saying is that, you know, ‘We are an upcoming power and you should not be threatened by us.’

“That’s his key message.”

Ahead of the summit, Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed China’s long-term ambitions, making clear that Washington would not accept a scenario in which Beijing’s rise comes at America’s expense.

“They believe they will be the world’s most powerful country, they’ll surpass the United States, and they have a plan to do it, and they’re executing on that plan, and I don’t blame them,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox News’ “Hannity.”

Rubio emphasized that while the administration is not seeking to limit China’s growth, it will resist any effort that undermines U.S. strength.

“Their rise cannot come at our fall. So there’s an area where we’re just going to have a difference of opinion,” Rubio said.

“That’ll come up on this trip,” the top US diplomat added, “but more importantly, that’ll be a feature of this relationship for a long time.”