Chinese President Xi Jinping is said to have sharply condemned Japan's remilitarization during a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on the 14th. Xi raised the temperature to a level that left attending U.S. government officials flustered, but Trump strongly backed Japan's position, leading to a tense standoff, according to officials.
According to a compilation of reports from major outlets including the Financial Times (FT) and Reuters on the 24th local time, Xi harshly criticized Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during the U.S.-China summit held in Beijing on the 14th. During the meeting, Xi labeled Prime Minister Takaichi and Taiwan President Lai Ching-te as "figures who threaten regional peace," pressing the United States not to support them. Xi also raised his voice over the issue of Japan's increased defense spending, unleashing criticism with an agitated tone. The issue of Japan's defense budget had not come up at all in prior working-level consultations between the U.S. and China. A member of the U.S. delegation said, "We were quite taken aback by Xi's sudden remarks."
These officials said Trump immediately pushed back on Xi's view at the meeting. Aiming at Xi's comments about Prime Minister Takaichi, Trump said he did "not agree," drawing a line that Takaichi is not a leader deserving of condemnation. Citing the steadily rising North Korean threat, he countered that Japan has little choice but to take more active military steps to protect its own security. A member of the U.S. delegation said it was the most heated clash between the two leaders during the two-day summit.
China took concrete retaliatory steps after Prime Minister Takaichi said in November last year that "a Taiwan invasion could become an existential threat to Japan and justify deploying the military," including imposing dual-use rare earth export restrictions or banning tourism. On the 22nd, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the increase in Japan's defense budget, claiming the country is sliding into new militarism.
Experts, however, said China's hard-line course is backfiring. Christopher Johnston, former National Security Council (NSC) East Asia Director-General at the White House, told the FT, "There is virtually no constituency outside China that supports its anti-Japanese rhetoric," adding, "The Japanese government is strengthening security cooperation with neighboring countries such as Australia, the Philippines and even Korea, and they worry far more about an aggressive China than a rearming Japan."
Japan recently designated Chinese military activities as its greatest strategic challenge in its annual defense white paper and identified them as a greater security threat than North Korea. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China has increased military spending for 31 consecutive years, spending $336 billion last year, while Japan's spending stands at $62 billion.