China has agreed to import 10 cargoes of American soya bean... and Trump is turning the screws on Takaichi...
Trump reportedly urged Japan’s PM to avoid further escalations in dispute with China
The report comes after the Wall Street Journal claimed the US president told Sanae Takaichi to ‘dial down the volume’ in dispute over Taiwan
Reuters
Thu 27 Nov 2025 02.38 GMT
Donald Trump asked the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, to avoid further escalation in a dispute with China during a call this week, according to two Japanese government sources who spoke to the Reuters news agency.
Takaichi sparked the biggest diplomatic bust-up with Beijing in years when she told parliament earlier this month that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan
could trigger Japanese military action.
Her words
drew a furious response from Beijing – which claims democratically governed Taiwan – and demanded Takaichi retract her remarks, which to date she has not done, although the Japanese government said its policy on Taiwan was unchanged.
On the call on Tuesday, the US president expressed a desire for Takaichi to avoid further infuriating Beijing, according to the sources speaking to Reuters. Trump, who is
seeking to maintain a fragile trade war truce with China, did not make any specific demands of Takaichi regarding the matter, one of the sources said.
Trump’s request for Takaichi to dial down the volume in the dispute was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The call immediately followed another
Trump held with Xi Jinping, in which the Chinese leader said Taiwan’s “return to China” is a key part of Beijing’s vision for the world order, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
