NAME : ERICK AGUNG YOHANES

STD. NUMBER : 2004508

CLASS : 2A – ENGLISH LITERATURE

A Solid Pride Can Turn into Destruction

China is a rising country in terms of both prosperity and education. However, China has a
gruesome history as a war victim. Back then, they fell in poverty and received harassment from
more powerful country such as Japan. They got annihilated and tremendously lost to wars. Even
though China known as a powerful country, they fought very hard to achieve an independence
along with sustained prosperity. Moreover, a billion citizens of China were struggling to survive
with less than two dollars in a day. The poverty consisted 90% of Chinese on 1978. After 40
years later, the China economic has soared very drastically. Currently, China has 99% live above
extreme poverty line which considered as a massive improvement. It shows that China is
unstoppable and bluntly being a dominance over the world. I think China is a country with huge
amount of discipline and diligence so that they can prevail over Europe. Even though their
ideology is against our Pancasila, we must look at their work of making their country great again.

Lately, there is a certain issue about an inevitable war between China and US. The war
between two powerful countries can be impactful to the world’s circumstance and can also
increase the potential of the next great war to occur. I think we can also realize the heat between
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping through media. They are competing for the strongest country in
the world. This case is a hereditary that already occurred in 2500 years ago. Thucydides, a great
thinker from Greece wrote a book about the History of Peloponnesian War. He wrote an event
which is similar to the recent events in our time. Thucydides also wrote a famous line that says
“it was the rise of Athens and the fear of the instilled in Sparta that made the war inevitable.”
This makes an idea of some people to mention this way of thinking as ‘Thucydides’ Trap’. In the
other word, it means when a country rises, the other country will make a solid resilience with
both pride and arrogancy which leads to an undeniable prestige war. I assume the war won’t
happen among two sides. The propaganda that comes from the third-party country can also be
the main cause of war. Regardless, China is the only country that claims to be stronger than US. I
think the main reason is because their military has been significantly enhanced in few decades.
 However, the world will never know what’s inside the mind of China and US. They can
either making another great war or planning towards path of peace. In this case, US won’t hold
back since they are claiming to be the best country while China is the competitor who think they
are superior. After all, both Donald Trump and Xi Jinping can have their own pride regarding
their beloved country. Nevertheless, they shouldn’t be careless towards the continuance of
humanity. I think we can only hope for the best and pray as our religion. We all know that war is
hell. It’s a dark age that no one wish for. Therefore, we must prevent war as much as we can.