During recent talks with US President Donald Trump in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping sharply criticized Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for the country's remilitarization, writes the Financial Times, citing seven sources.
According to them, the Chinese leader sharply raised his tone, surprising American representatives, as the topic had not been raised in previous meetings. Several sources described this moment as the most tense in the two-day meeting between the two leaders.
Xi Jinping criticized Takaichi and her policy of increasing the country's defense spending. US President Donald Trump responded to Xi by saying that Tokyo should take a tougher stance on defense issues due to the growing threat from North Korea.
According to FT sources, the topic of Japan has become the most tense part of the talks between Trump and Xi.
On May 24, Kyodo News also drew attention to this moment. According to the news agency, Xi Jinping said during his meeting with the American leader that Takaichi was engaged in “the revival of a new form of militarism“.
The US president visited China from May 13 to 15. Takaichi spoke to Trump by phone immediately after his visit. Speaking to reporters later, the Japanese prime minister noted that the American leader had told her in detail the content of his visit, on the condition that she not reveal these details to the press.
The escalation in relations between China and Japan began in 2025, when a diplomatic conflict broke out between the two countries. The tension arose from an incident during Chinese naval exercises. According to Japanese authorities, Chinese fighter jets targeted Japanese military aircraft with their radars. China has denied the allegations and said the island nation's aircraft have repeatedly approached Chinese ships, interfering with aircraft carrier training flights.
China later accused Japan of disrupting the exercises, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tokyo was threatening China with military action.
Relations between the two countries have been strained, in part due to Takaichi's statements that Tokyo would respond to any Chinese military action against Taiwan that threatens Japan's security.
In late December 2025, the Japanese government approved a record defense budget. The total budget proposal for 2026 is 122.31 trillion yen ($785 billion). The increase in security spending came after Sanae Takaichi's November statements that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could pose a "threat to survival" on its side.
In March, Reuters reported that Tokyo planned to change the wording describing its relations with China from “one of the most important“ to “strategic“ and “mutually beneficial“, emphasizing that China remains an important neighbor. The agency wrote that the decision showed a growing cooling between Asia's two largest economies.
On April 17, China's Foreign Ministry accused Japan of worsening bilateral relations over Tokyo's decision to send a warship to the Taiwan Strait.