I'd rather take ongoing deterioration of Chimerica as a road with two-way traffic. China is not an expansionist civilization, and never had been, despite it currently being open to the world on levels unprecedented in Chinese history. Thucydides trap requires active "support" from hegemon in decline as well (that's why it didn't happen between Great Britain and the US after WWII).

More important, to me, is the crucial mistake of the US to oppose two apexes of Kissinger’s triangle simultaneously. It’s almost as if they began the Melian Dialogue before the Mytilenean Debate.