Takaichi Presses Trump on Taiwan Before Xi Summit — SkimNews
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- Takaichi Sanae met Trump in New York on September 22, one day before Xi's Washington arrival, with the two leaders discussing the economy, China-related issues (AI, semiconductors, critical minerals), and North Korea ahead of the Trump-Xi summit.
- Xi Jinping declared upon arrival that China and the US "should be partners, not rivals," receiving an unusually warm personal greeting from Trump on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews alongside a planned White House welcoming ceremony and state dinner.
- Washington and Beijing extended their trade truce by two months to January 10, postponing additional tariffs and export restrictions, though divisions over trade, AI, and Taiwan remain unresolved.
- Tokyo fears Xi will leverage Trump's desire for a broader economic deal to press for continued delays in US arms sales to Taiwan — a scenario Takaichi previously called a potential "survival-threatening situation" for Japan given the proximity of Japan's southwestern islands.
- Takaichi's UN General Assembly speech the same day declared the "stable post-Cold War era" over and named Russia and North Korea by name, but pointedly omitted China despite months of deteriorating relations.
- Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu told NHK he believed Washington's Taiwan position was unchanged from the May leaders' summit, though that assessment will only be confirmed after Trump's talks with Xi.
Why it matters: Japan's southwestern islands sit close to Taiwan, and Takaichi has publicly framed a Chinese attack on Taiwan as a survival threat to Japan — so any Trump-Xi arrangement that delays US arms sales to Taipei directly weakens Tokyo's Western Pacific deterrence posture, with Japan locked out of the bargaining.
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