With Japan’s new leader refusing to back down from China’s show of force and claims on Taiwan, Xi Jinping picks up the phone to try to pry the U.S.-Japan alliance apart.

Trump’s back-to-back calls with Xi and Takaichi did nothing to temper Beijing’s pressure campaign on Tokyo over Taiwan.

Donald Trump has held back-to-back calls with Chinese president Xi Jinping and Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi amid a deepening row between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Xi told the US president during their hour-long call that “Taiwan’s return to China is an integral part of the post-war international order”.

China stepped up its economic war with Japan on Wednesday as a dispute between Asia’s two biggest economies intensified over a remark by Tokyo's new leader about a Japanese response to any Chinese military move against self-ruled Taiwan.

Japan on Tuesday rebuffed China's claim that it can take military action against nations defeated in World War II based on the U.N.

China has sharply condemned Japan’s plan to deploy medium‑range surface‑to‑air missiles on Yonaguni Island, just about 110 km from Taiwan, calling the move “extremely dangerous” and accusing Tokyo of stoking militarism and regional confrontation.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute “a survival-threatening situation” for Japan, drawing sharp criticisms from Beijing.

For years, China has threatened, cajoled and squeezed democratic Taiwan in an attempt to force it to fold without a costly war across the Taiwan Strait. Japan has mostly toed the US line of “strategic ambiguity”, rarely speaking out and officially saying that the dispute can be resolved through dialogue.