China and Japan Are in a Showdown, With Trump in the Middle
With Japan’s new leader refusing to back down from China’s show of force and claims on Taiwan, Xi Jinping picks up the phone to try to pry the U.S.-Japan alliance apart.
If anyone needed evidence that a critical moment is developing in Asia-Pacific diplomacy, look no further than the phone call on Monday between Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, and President Trump.
Mr. Xi reached out to Mr. Trump because a Japanese leader is taking her country’s strongest stance since World War II to assert that Taiwan’s security is also Japan’s security. While that has long been apparent to military planners, given Taiwan’s proximity to southern Japan — and also to U.S. bases there — Japan’s new strategic posture has alarmed Beijing’s leaders.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged President Donald Trump to help protect the post-World War II order — a tacit reference to supporting Beijing’s claims over Taiwan — in a phone call that Chinese analysts have claimed as a win in Beijing’s tense standoff with Japan.
Xi told Trump that the “return” of self-governing Taiwan to China is an important part of the Allied victory, according to the official Chinese readout of Monday’s call.
“China and the U.S. once fought shoulder to shoulder against fascism and militarism and should work all the more closely together to safeguard the fruits of victory in World War II at present,” he said, according to the readout.
Trump described the “very good” call as focusing on the war in Ukraine, curbing the flow of illicit fentanyl precursors and Chinese purchases of American soybeans. “Our relationship with China is extremely strong!” he wrote in a Truth Social post that did not mention Taiwan or Japan.