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President Donald Trump turned reports of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s swipes at the West during the US-China summit in Beijing as a political attack on former President Joe Biden on Thursday.
“When President Xi called the United States perhaps a declining nation, he was talking about the great damage we have suffered during the four years of Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and to that effect, he was 100% correct,” Trump wrote on Truth Social before the second day of talks between the US and China.
After the American delegation was greeted with pomp and circumstance at the opening ceremony on Wednesday night, Xi invoked the so-called “Thucydides Trap” during his opening remarks, asking whether China and the United States can avoid a history of conflict between a rising power and an established one.
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The line expressed Beijing’s broader view of global power dynamics, though it was unclear whether Xi specifically referred to the US or the West as a “declining nation.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with US President Donald Trump at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Kenny Holston/Pool Photo via AP)
“President Xi was not referring to the incredible rise the United States has shown to the world during the amazing 16 months of the Trump administration, including all-time high stock markets and 401K’s, military victories and successful relations in Venezuela, the military annihilation of Iran (to be continued!),” Trump said in his post.
“The United States is the hottest country in the world, and I hope our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever!” Trump continued.
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Trump went on to say that the United States “suffered immeasurably” under Biden-era policies like open borders, higher taxes, DEI, “transgender for everyone,” and sanctuary city laws. He admitted that “two years ago” the nation was “shrinking.”
President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with US President Joe Biden at Trump’s inauguration in the US Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital has reached out to China’s Foreign Ministry and the White House for comment.
A White House spokesman reinstated Fox News Digital as the president of Truth Social, but a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy said in a statement that “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the beautification of America can go hand in hand.”
However, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy did not respond to questions asking for more context about Xi’s reported comments.
Xi’s reference to “Thucydides Trap” was not a direct statement that the United States or the West is declining, but it used a geopolitical theory about the risk of conflict when rising powers challenge the established and came as the Chinese president raised the prospect of a US-China conflict with Taiwan. The term has been used in US-China policy circles to describe fears that China’s rise could put it in a position of conflict with Washington.
President Donald Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Mark Schifelbein/AP)
“At the reception to welcome President Trump, President Xi revealed that this year will begin China’s 15-year economic and social development plan. More than 1.4 billion Chinese people, using the rich heritage of our more than 5,000-year-old civilization, are improving China’s modern state in all directions with the high-level development of the US. More than 300 million Americans are reviving the spirit of patriotism, innovation and and businesses, and usher in a new journey for the development of the United States,” said a spokesperson in their statement to Fox News Digital.
“The people of China and the United States are both great people. Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and beautifying the United States can go hand in hand. We can help each other to achieve success and promote global welfare. President Xi and President Trump also agreed to build a constructive relationship between China and the US for strategic stability to promote stable, sound, sustainable development, in the continuous development of peace and to bring US peace to the world.”
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Former President Biden and Xi’s history goes back to their time as vice presidents.
But as president, Biden’s relationship with Xi is one that involves an ongoing strategic rivalry, with the two leaders meeting in Bali in 2022 and California in 2023 as Washington and Beijing try to stabilize relations amid disputes over Taiwan, a spy balloon intercepted over the United States, fentanyl and other controversies.
Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s representatives for comment, but did not immediately hear back by the time of publication.
“We must be partners, not rivals,” Xi told Trump during opening remarks following a welcoming ceremony in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. “We must help each other succeed and succeed together and find the right way so that the great countries can come together well in the new era.”
