China Targets Trump's Top Ally in Pacific

Beijing’s restrictions on the export of several critical minerals to Japan are part of efforts to pressure the U.S. ally to reverse what China describes as a path toward “remilitarization,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday.

In January, China’s commerce ministry moved to tighten controls on exports of items with potential military applications to Japan, barring any party anywhere from transferring such “dual-use” goods for Japanese military end users or military purposes. Beijing cited remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi linking Japan’s security to that of Beijing-claimed Taiwan.

China tightened the restrictions twice more in February. While Beijing has not published a comprehensive list of affected items, they include rare earth elements and other critical minerals essential to the manufacture of advanced technologies.

“China, in accordance with laws and regulations, prohibits the export of dual-use items for Japanese military users and military uses, with the aim of stopping Japan’s remilitarization and nuclear ambitions,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday during a regular news conference.

Speaking to lawmakers in November, Takaichi linked her country’s security to that of Taiwan, saying a Chinese blockade of the self-ruled island would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” and could enable Tokyo to deploy its Self-Defense Forces to assist responding U.S. forces.

China considers Taiwan a rogue province that must eventually be brought under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve unification. Beijing responded with a wave of retaliatory measures, while anti-Japanese rhetoric reached a fever pitch, repeatedly accusing Tokyo of returning to the militarism of Imperial Japan in the 1930s and 1940s.

“China’s rare earth restrictions underscore that economic statecraft is now a central element of deterrence and coercion, not a peripheral tool,” wrote Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Meredith Schwartz, an associate fellow with the program.

“Beijing is demonstrating that it can shape allied behavior and crisis dynamics through supply-chain leverage well before any military move against Taiwan. For the U.S., this means Taiwan deterrence cannot rest on military posture alone; it should also account for how economic pressure could constrain allied decision-making in a crisis.”

Remilitarization?

Though the Japan Self-Defense Forces possess stronger air and maritime capabilities than most militaries, they are legally restricted to operating in defense of the Japanese homeland under Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution.

Japanese leaders have, however, sought in recent years to expand the military’s role. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushed for a force more commensurate with Japan’s diplomatic stature, driven in part by concerns over China’s rapid military buildup and threats toward neighboring Taiwan.

Since taking office in October, Takaichi, a protégé of Abe, has largely continued that approach, backed by a strong majority in the National Diet’s House of Representatives.

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Taiwan Strait Crisis

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The country’s defense spending is on track to reach 2 percent of GDP, matching the benchmark required of NATO members. In April, Takaichi’s cabinet also relaxed decades-old restrictions on defense exports to allow the sale of lethal weaponry, though transfers must still be approved on a case-by-case basis and limited to friendly countries.

Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly raised concerns about Japan’s defense buildup during talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing earlier this month. He was particularly critical of Japan’s defense spending increases, a complaint that reportedly surprised U.S. officials because the issue had not been identified beforehand as a summit priority, according to the Financial Times.

In a phone call shortly after Trump concluded his two-day visit to China, the U.S. president reaffirmed Washington’s “unwavering” alliance with Tokyo, Takaichi told reporters.

Japan is the United States’ most powerful ally in Asia. The country hosts approximately 54,000 U.S. troops across 15 major bases and more than 100 smaller facilities. Japan is also a key link in the so-called First Island Chain-a string of islands stretching southward toward Borneo that Pentagon planners consider critical in any potential conflict with China.

Tokyo on Monday stressed that Japan’s defensive posture remains unchanged.

“Japan has a minimum defense capability to protect Japan, and what is mentioned by China is not true. In the postwar period, Japan has been a peace-oriented country. That stance will remain the same,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said during a regular press briefing.

Japan is set to host another key U.S. ally this week.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. scheduled to arrive in Tokyo-the first visit by a Philippine leader in more than a decade.

Marcos is expected to meet Takaichi on Thursday. Defense and energy security are expected to be central focuses of discussion in light of tensions between both countries and China, as well as the global oil shock caused by the Iran war.

China’s Mineral Dominance

China holds a near-monopoly over the rare earth supply chain, including more than 90 percent of global production of rare earth magnets-specialized alloys essential to modern electronics, from electric vehicles and wind turbines to fighter jets and precision-guided missiles.

Japanese manufacturers produce most of the remaining 5 to 10 percent of these magnets but still rely on China for certain so-called heavy rare earth elements required to make them.

Chinese customs data reviewed by Reuters showed no exports in February of gallium, a key semiconductor material, or the heavy rare earths terbium and dysprosium. Only small shipments of yttrium oxide were recorded.

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U.S. List of Critical Minerals

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It is not the first time China has leveraged its dominance of rare earths for strategic purposes. Last year, Beijing imposed export restrictions in response to sweeping U.S. tariff hikes on Chinese goods and efforts to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors.

And in 2010, Beijing reportedly imposed an unofficial two-month embargo on rare earth exports to Japan following the arrest of a Chinese fishing trawler captain after a collision with Japanese Coast Guard vessels near the disputed Senkaku Islands.

Japanese commerce chief Ryosei Akazawa traveled to Suzhou last week for a two-day meeting of APEC trade ministers, becoming the highest-ranking Japanese official to visit China since the diplomatic dispute began.

China largely snubbed Akazawa’s visit, though he did briefly meet Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on the sidelines of the gathering, Kihara told reporters Monday. He declined to discuss the substance of their conversation.

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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 4:21 PM.