President Donald Trump urged Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi this week not to further provoke Beijing over Taiwan, after her recent comments suggesting a Chinese attack on the island could trigger Japanese military action.
Takaichi's Taiwan Remarks Trigger Beijing Backlash
Takaichi set off the sharpest diplomatic clash with China in years when she told parliament that a hypothetical assault on Taiwan might lead Japan to use force. Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as its own territory, reacted angrily and demanded she retract the remarks, a step she has not taken.
Trump Balances Trade Truce And Security Tensions
In a call on Tuesday, Trump told Takaichi he wanted her to avoid further infuriating China, according to a Wall Street Journal report confirmed by Japanese government sources cited by Reuters. The sources said Trump, who is trying to preserve a fragile trade-war truce with Beijing, did not lay out specific demands but signaled concern that Tokyo's rhetoric could raise tensions.
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The conversation came immediately after Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who reiterated that Taiwan's "return to China" is central to Beijing's long-term vision for the world order, China's Xinhua news agency reported. Taiwan's government, which rejects Beijing's sovereignty claim, has repeatedly said unification "is not an option" for its 23 million people.
China has pressed Washington to rein in its ally. According to Reuters, in an editorial published on Thursday, the Communist Party's People's Daily argued that "China and the United States share a common responsibility to jointly safeguard the post-war international order and oppose any attempts or actions to revive militarism," explicitly invoking Japan's wartime past.
The White House, in a statement shared with Reuters and attributed to Trump, said the U.S. relationship with China "is very good, and that's also very good for Japan, who is our dear and close ally."
Taiwan Policy Frictions Resurface Between Major Powers
The call also fits into a broader struggle over Taiwan policy. Earlier this year, a separate WSJ report noted that Xi sought an explicit pledge from Trump to "oppose" Taiwanese independence, an ask the State Department effectively rebuffed by restating that the U.S. opposes "any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side" and that China "presents the single greatest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."
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