Xi rebuffed Trump plea to talk with Takaichi, report says

U.S. President Donald Trump pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to roll back Beijing's export restrictions on Japan, including on rare earths, and to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi when the two met in Washington last month. The South China Morning Post reported this in an exclusive, citing people familiar with the discussions. Xi was not receptive to the idea. He warned Trump that the risk of Japanese militarism was growing.nippon+2

The account suggests that the steadier relationship between the United States and China has done little to ease Beijing's dispute with Tokyo. China will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen on Nov. 18-19, about six weeks away, and a meeting between Xi and Takaichi there now looks unlikely.khan+1

Rare earths and the trade truce

According to the Post's sources, Japan was not one of Trump's top priorities at the summit. He still raised Tokyo's complaints about Chinese export controls that have squeezed Japanese industry. Trump argued that the restrictions also threaten U.S. industries that depend on Japanese suppliers, and that this indirectly violates the U.S.-China trade truce agreed in Busan last October. Xi replied that China-Japan relations and China-U.S. relations "should be kept separate and should not affect each other," Korea's Kyunghyang Shinmun reported, citing the Post. Neither government has publicly confirmed the exchange.scmp+4

The report builds on earlier accounts. On Oct. 2, the Yomiuri Shimbun cited Japanese government officials as saying Trump called Takaichi a "strong leader" in his talks with Xi and urged dialogue between the two countries. Reuters separately confirmed with a Japanese government source that Trump raised "the need for Japan China dialogue".thediplomat+1

Beijing holds firm

Relations between China and Japan have been frozen since November 2025. That month Takaichi told parliament that a Taiwan contingency could become a "survival threatening situation" for Japan, the legal threshold under which Japan may use force alongside allies. Beijing has demanded that she retract the remarks. It has also cut exchanges, cancelled flights and banned exports of dual-use goods, including rare earths, to Japan.newswav+1

The Post also reported that Tokyo asked for a summit on the sidelines of APEC. Kyunghyang, citing the Post's sources, said China turned down that request and offered a meeting with Premier Li Qiang instead. Last month, former Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya visited Beijing and suggested that the two governments reaffirm the 1972 joint communique rather than have Takaichi retract her remarks. Foreign Minister Wang Yi rejected the idea.nippon+1

> "Ambiguous approaches are not good. In China, there is a saying that the person who solves a problem should be the very party who caused it," Wang told Iwaya, according to Kyunghyang.khan

Takaichi has not softened her position. In her Oct. 5 policy speech she called China "an important neighbor" and pledged to build a "constructive and stable relationship". She also listed Chinese military activity, export controls and exit bans as issues on which she would "say what needs to be said".vietnam+1