This is John Batchel. Colleague Gordon Chang, talking about the Thucydides trap used by

Xi Jinping to indicate his rising power was getting stronger while America's superpower was in

decline. Gordon, it refutes that. Jot and Tittle. The facts don't add up, Mr. Xi Jinping.

Here's Gordon. More of this tonight.

Please help me understand.

On the first day of the summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping,

Xi Jinping mentioned the Thucydides trap,

and he was using that as a reference to a declining power, dangerously challenging a rising power.

And the idea was that he did not want the United States to go to war with China to prevent

China's rise.

But when you look at it, China is the declining power. When we see its economy, its demography,

it's populace, this is a very distressing story about a China in decline. And when you look at

the numbers for the United States, this is a good economy. It's solid for the moment. What we also see is America

is self-sufficient in food and in energy, and China is self-sufficient in neither of those.

So, yeah, yeah, there's a superpower, but there's only one of them. And that superpower on a relative basis is getting

stronger. A lot of Americans may say things are getting worse in the U.S. But when you look at Russia,

you look at China, the United States, in a relative measure, is getting stronger against both

of them. And I think that we can thank President Trump, especially for the energy

component of this, because he certainly has asserted American power in ways that advance our

country and its security. I'm glad you spoke.