{"id":46712,"date":"2026-06-24T19:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/46712\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T19:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:59:11","slug":"xi-strongly-criticized-takaichi-over-japans-remilitarization-during-trump-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/46712\/","title":{"rendered":"Xi strongly criticized Takaichi over Japan\u2019s \u2018remilitarization\u2019 during Trump summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese leader Xi Jinping strongly criticized Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi over Japan\u2019s \u201cremilitarization\u201d during his summit<\/a> with U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing earlier this month, according to a media report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The conversation, which saw Xi become visibly agitated and vocal over Japan\u2019s increased defense spending, was among the most heated parts of the U.S.-China leaders summit, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump administration officials were taken aback by the diatribe, as Japan did not feature in their talks with their Chinese counterparts ahead of the summit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. president told Xi that Takaichi has had to take a more aggressive approach to security amid the growing threat from nuclear-armed North Korea, the FT said. It was unclear if Trump had mentioned China \u2014 Japan\u2019s biggest security concern.<\/p>\n

The Yomiuri Shimbun daily and Kyodo News reported a similar outburst by Xi, saying that Trump had defended Takaichi in a move that senior Japanese officials said highlighted the allies\u2019 solidarity.<\/p>\n

Trump called Takaichi<\/a> from Air Force One \u201cimmediately after\u201d his summit with Xi, with the U.S. leader offering a \u201cdetailed explanation\u201d of the summit. Takaichi did not offer more details of the call, but said she had expressed her \u201cdeep gratitude for the tremendous support\u201d Japan had received.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a regular news conference Monday, the government\u2019s top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, declined to comment on the reports, but emphasized the importance of the Takaichi-Trump phone call.<\/p>\n

Japan has undertaken dramatic changes in its defense policy in recent years amid China\u2019s rapid military modernization and its ongoing moves near democratic Taiwan, as well as nuclear-armed North Korea\u2019s unprecedented flurry of missile launches and Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Under Takaichi\u2019s watch, Japan has made progress toward its goal of bringing defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product, with the defense-related budget for the fiscal year through next March set to rise to just short of that threshold, at 1.9% of GDP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The prime minister has also overseen the easing earlier this month of restrictions on the export of lethal defense equipment<\/a>, while weighing revisions to Tokyo\u2019s decades-old pledge not to produce, possess or host nuclear weapons<\/a> over apparent concerns about the United States\u2019 commitment to maintaining its \u201cnuclear umbrella\u201d over Japan.<\/p>\n

All of these moves have been criticized by China, which claims that Tokyo is lurching toward \u201cneo-militarism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kihara disputed this characterization, calling China\u2019s claims \u201centirely unfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur exclusively defense-oriented policy remains unchanged, and the capabilities we maintain are kept to the absolute minimum necessary,\u201d Kihara said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJapan\u2019s path as a peaceful nation since the end of the war will not change in the future,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Beijing has taken a particularly strident tone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese leader Xi Jinping strongly criticized Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi over Japan\u2019s \u201cremilitarization\u201d during his summit with U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[12,462,360,13,177,179,180,178,358,488,84,8357,405,2537],"class_list":["post-46712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-china","tag-china-japan-relations","tag-defense","tag-donald-trump","tag-japans-politics","tag-japanese-politics","tag-politics","tag-politics-of-japan","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-taiwan","tag-u-s","tag-u-s-china-relations","tag-u-s-japan-relations","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}