China is developing 500 smart cities — almost half the worldwide total, and more than 10 times North America's figure.

Why it matters: China's smart cities signal the country's strengths not only in technology and infrastructure, but in implementation.

The strategic rationale for the relationship between the United States and China has collapsed. After a quarter century in which American presidents sought to integrate a rapidly developing China into the American-led international order, the United States has concluded that what it thought was a “strategic partner” is in fact a “strategic adversary.” After decades of keeping its head down following Deng Xiaoping’s injunction to “hide and bide,” Xi Jinping’s China has discarded that cloak and become increasingly assertive.

Five days after Trump moved to cut off American components to Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, President Xi Jinping responded with a subtle threat to strangle America’s supplies of rare earths — the natural elements used in everything from computers to satellites. Xi’s threat demonstrates how the rivalry between a rising China and a ruling U.S. spreads from trade to technology to supply chains, touching every aspect of bilateral relations. The conflict risks massive spillover costs to the global economy.

Le piège de Thucydides se met en place quand une puissance émergente vient défier la puissance régnante. Ainsi hier Athènes face à Sparte. Et peut-être demain Pékin face à Washington. Telle est la thèse de Graham Allison, professeur émérite à Harvard et conseiller de plusieurs secrétaires d'État à la Défense, dans son livre devenu un best-seller mondial.

(The Thucydides Trap takes place when an emerging power threatens to displace a ruling one. Long ago, in antiquity, it was Athens against Sparta. But tomorrow, it could be Beijing against Washington. Such is the argument made by Graham Allison, emeritus professor at Harvard and advisor to several Secretaries of Defense, in his best-selling book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape the Thucydides Trap? - This English translation from original French by Christian Gibbons, Belfer Center)

You were hired a month ago as a special assistant to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. When selecting you, he said he wanted someone from outside the system, with fresh eyes, and a capacity for strategic imagination. As he put it in giving you what he called a “modest assignment,” your first project is to help him design a US grand strategy for meeting the China challenge.