Trump wades into China and Japan's escalating dispute over Taiwan

HONG KONG — President Donald Trump has spoken with the leaders of U.S. ally Japan and rival superpower China amid the pair’s escalating dispute over Taiwan.

Trump’s surprise call Monday with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, was followed by a call with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who angered China earlier this month with comments on the Beijing-claimed island democracy.

Both China and Japan said Trump initiated the calls, which the White House has not confirmed.

The dispute began when Takaichi, who was elected last month, told lawmakers that a hypothetical Chinese attack on self-ruling Taiwan, which at its closest point is about 70 miles from Japanese territory, could threaten Japan’s survival and trigger a military response from Tokyo.

It was the first time such an explicit remark had been made by a sitting prime minister of Japan, which like the U.S. has long been deliberately vague as to whether it would intervene militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan.

China, which describes Taiwan as its “core of core interests,” has responded with outrage, taking the dispute to the U.N., advising its citizens against traveling to Japan, and seeking economic retaliation against Japanese seafood, movies, concerts and more.

On Monday, China criticized Japan’s plan to deploy missiles on an island near Taiwan as a deliberate attempt to “create regional tension and provoke military confrontation,” while Japan scrambled a fighter jet after it detected a Chinese drone flying between Taiwan and the Japanese island of Yonaguni.

Though Takaichi has refused Beijing’s demands that she retract her “erroneous” remarks, her government says Japan’s policy on Taiwan has not changed and it continues to favor a peaceful resolution to the issue.

Trump has not publicly commented on the dispute, though his ambassador to Japan, George Glass, has said Tokyo can count on U.S. support in the face of Chinese “coercion.”

Takaichi said Tuesday that she reaffirmed Japan’s close cooperation with the U.S. in her call with Trump, which she said he initiated.