AmericanThesis

For years, Americans have been told that conflict with China is inevitable. One power rises, the other must fall. But that idea, the “Thucydides Trap,” isn’t American. The American idea, from Alexander Hamilton to Henry Carey to Franklin Roosevelt, is that nations grow richer by building rail, power, ports, science, industry. One nation’s prosperity can add to another’s. Modern China’s founder, Sun Yat-sen, modeled his principles on Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. In World War II, Americans and Chinese fought side by side, and both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao hoped to rebuild China with Roosevelt after the war. China’s rejuvenation does not require America’s decline. America’s renewal does not require China’s destruction.