In her December 1 front-page column for Sankei Shimbun, Yoshiko Sakurai argues that recent Wall Street Journal and Asahi Shimbun reports on phone calls between Xi Jinping, Donald Trump, and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reflect Beijing’s long-standing strategy to split the U.S.–Japan alliance and isolate Japan.
She contends that Xi’s push for “reunification” with Taiwan, backed by historical falsification and disregard for international law, represents an “aberrant China” that must be clearly exposed to the world.
Japan, she writes, must dramatically strengthen its strategic communication, reduce its structural vulnerabilities to China in business and technology, and lead the free world in preventing a geopolitical catastrophe in which the liberal camp loses and a China-centric authoritarian order prevails.

This is from Yoshiko Sakurai’s regular column carried on the front page of the December 1 edition of Sankei Shimbun, titled “Send the Message of an Aberrant China.”
This essay, too, proves that she is the “national treasure” as defined by Saichō—an unparalleled treasure of the nation.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people all over the world.

The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on November 25 and 27 the telephone talks between the U.S. and Chinese leaders and between the Japanese and American leaders.
Taken together, the picture it paints is that “Chinese President Xi Jinping was angered by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on a ‘situation threatening Japan’s survival’ over Taiwan, and U.S. President Donald Trump listened to him.”
According to the report, Xi devoted half of his call to Taiwan, expounding on China’s “historical rights” and on the responsibility borne by China and the United States as guardians of the postwar order.

In the Japan–U.S. telephone talks, the paper wrote that “Trump advised Takaichi not to provoke Beijing on the issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty.”
On November 28, Asahi Shimbun ran the headlines “Japan–China Confrontation Becomes a Source of Friction Between Japan and the U.S.” and “No U.S. Support for Prime Minister’s Remarks,” and reported that “after hearing Xi’s plea, Trump warned the prime minister,” as if that were the structure of the exchange.

However, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara explained on the 27th that the government had lodged a protest that the remarks reported by the WSJ were not factual.
Information obtained from interviews with multiple senior government officials is also completely different.

According to that information, in the talks Takaichi explained to Trump the key points of a situation threatening Japan’s survival, and when she told him that “the Takaichi administration’s view is the same as that of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,” Trump accepted this.
With the premise that Japan–China relations would be maintained on the basis of Japan–U.S. cooperation, the conversation proceeded, and there were no statements cautioning against “provocation,” we are told.

Is it not likely that the reports in WSJ and Asahi reflect information provided by the Chinese government?
Driving a wedge between Japan and the United States and pushing Japan toward isolation has long been a Chinese strategy.
China wants to crush Takaichi’s statement that suggested Japan–U.S. cooperation in the event of a Taiwan contingency.

Xi, who transformed China’s political system into one-man rule, places top priority on “national security.”
Under one-man rule, that is, as the deification of Xi proceeds, the annexation of Taiwan becomes a key factor buttressing his power base.
For that very reason, he will spare no effort to eliminate any element of uncertainty surrounding Taiwan.
A ban on imports of Japanese marine products, further detentions of Japanese nationals, or an embargo on rare earths are all conceivable.
China is an aberrant state that uses sheer power to carry out irrational acts.
It is time for our country, both government and private sector, to fundamentally change its understanding of this neighbor.

Xi’s decision to call Trump was likely an expression of his determination that the United States and Japan must not be allowed to hinder the annexation of Taiwan and that he would not tolerate Takaichi’s remarks implying such a possibility.
That is precisely why China distorts Takaichi’s comments and disseminates them to the world as if Japan were poised to resort to military action in Taiwan.

In response to China’s information warfare, Japan ought, in principle, to have the Foreign Ministry and all its overseas missions act as one in disseminating accurate information in multiple languages.
Yet is our country not lagging badly behind in information transmission, even as Xi’s pressure on Japan continues and intensifies?

A key figure at the heart of the Japanese government has analyzed the aims of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Xi, this time, made sure that President Trump fully understood his strong fixation on the Taiwan issue.
They are probably thinking that the several days in Beijing when Trump visits China next April will be the decisive moment.
They will offer the most lavish hospitality and satisfy U.S. demands, convincing Trump that the United States and China, as a ‘G2’, will together shape the world.
They will seek to turn U.S. policy on Taiwan.
They will have Washington abandon its traditional strategy of ambiguity, recognize that Taiwan is part of China, and clearly oppose Taiwanese independence.
That is the real objective.”

China’s information war aimed at historical falsification is riddled with contradictions.
China claims that, as a result of the Greater East Asia War, Taiwan became part of Chinese territory.
It argues that to defend and realize that outcome is to uphold the postwar order.

However, no international law stipulates that Taiwan belongs to China.
Neither the United States nor Japan has ever recognized such a claim.
Japan’s position has consistently been that the premise is that the two parties on either side of the strait will hold peaceful negotiations.
The one who is breaking that premise is Xi himself.

China appeals to the United States that “it is the responsibility of the two great powers, China and America, to uphold the postwar international order.”
But it is China that has been trying to rewrite that postwar order.
Supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine, violating the Sino–Indian border, seizing the South China Sea, targeting the Senkaku Islands (Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture) and Okinawa, and asserting that Taiwan is Chinese territory—these acts themselves are a trampling of the postwar international order.

Xi believes that “the east wind will overwhelm the west wind” and that time is on China’s side, and he schemes to envelop global society in the value system of the Chinese Communist Party.
If Taiwan is incorporated into China, it will trigger an irreparable change in the global balance of power.
It would mean entering an era in which the liberal camp and the authoritarian camp confront each other, the United States is defeated, and China sweeps across the world.

Japan must stand at the forefront in preventing such a vast tragedy.
The strategy of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is being put to the test.
First and foremost, the question is how to make Xi’s “aberrant China” a shared understanding among the world, starting with Japan, the United States, and Europe.

Unlike other countries, Japan has dealt with China for two thousand years.
It is important to relate that history and to explain carefully to Trump each and every one of Xi’s words and deeds.
Europe, Australia, India, and Asian countries as well are already aware of China’s aberrant behavior.
It is essential that Japan further strengthen the sharing of information with those countries.

I sympathize with most of Takaichi’s policies to strengthen national power.
However, what is now needed is not only individual policies—that is, tactics—but a larger strategy that bundles them together.
As the neighbor of a country that twists history and ignores international law, Japan must be better prepared than ever before.
We must devise strategy more thoroughly than ever before.

While coordinating with the international community, we must also steadily eliminate Japan’s vulnerabilities.
It is vital that the government and the private sector share a sense of crisis, keep business with China to a minimum, and refrain from sending employees’ families to China, thereby reducing the number of Japanese citizens exposed to danger.
The government must use every possible means to protect companies that are being forced to transfer technology or that are in danger of being ensnared by Chinese capital.
Recognizing that our neighbor is an aberrant great power must be the bedrock of our diplomacy toward China.