From 18 November 2025

Above; Trump and Xi sharing a Tibetan joke. Well maybe not, but maybe

On 15 November 2025 Japan scrambled warplanes when it detected a drone from Xi Jinpeng‘s People’s Republic of China near the island of Yanaguni. Yanaguni is a Japanese island near Taiwan (CBS News).

(Japanese Prime Minister) Takaichi sparked the most serious diplomatic dispute in years between Asia’s top two economies when she told Japanese lawmakers this month that a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatening Japan’s survival could trigger a military response. Reuters

A travel ban issued by the Chinese government and sparked by the above comments has affected Japan’s tourism industry. The boycott could cost Japan’s economy an estimated $14B a year (Reuters).

US President Donald Trump did his part, meeting with Xi Jinping to kiss his butt and lower any trade tariffs he has threatened to place on China.

The Trump-Xi deal pauses the escalating economic confrontation between the United States and China but sets the stage for a more managed—rather than market-based—trade relationship, and one that increasingly blurs the line between strategic and commercial objectives. – Kari Heerman Brookings.edu

Trump also unilaterally imposed a 15% trade tariff on Japanese imports that resulted in a 3rd quarter contraction of the Japanese economy (Reuters). Trump’s man god is very happy with his performance; helping the PRC and Xi while hurting yet another US ally. But doing it in such a way we didn’t really notice.

Xinjiang internment camps Wikipedia