President Trump has had little to say publicly about the Chinese government’s continuous and venomous lashing out at Japan in recent weeks. The outpouring is China’s response to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s noting of the fact that Japan would likely support Taiwan if the island were invaded by the mainland.
But the U.S. has not simply left Japan to fend for itself without any show of support.
A few days ago, Japan’s military “scrambled fighter jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around Japan, the Defense Ministry in Tokyo said late Tuesday, just days after Chinese jets locked their radar systems on Japanese aircraft in what Tokyo said were ‘dangerous’ maneuvers” (The Japan Times, December 10, 2025)
Two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers flew from the Sea of Japan toward the East China Sea to join two Chinese H-6 bombers for a “long-range joint flight” above the western Pacific Ocean off the coast of Shikoku, the Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Office said in a statement.
Four Chinese J-16 fighter jets joined the bombers as they made a round-trip flight between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island, the statement added.
The ministry also said it had simultaneously detected Russian early-warning aircraft and two Su-30 fighters in the Sea of Japan.
“These clearly represent a show of force against Japan,” said Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi. “This is a serious security concern for our country.”
By Wednesday, U.S. nuclear-capable bombers were joining Japanese fighter jets in a drill over the Sea of Japan. Japan’s defense ministry said that Japan and the United States had “reaffirmed their strong to prevent any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force and confirmed the readiness posture of both the Self-Defense Forces and U.S. forces.”
A U.S. spokesman remarked that the Chinese-Russian maneuvers in the area were “ ‘not conducive to regional peace and stability’ and reaffirmed that its alliance with Japan was ‘unwavering.’ ”
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman declared that the China-Russia drills were nothing special, just a demonstration of determination to “safeguard regional peace and stability” and that “The Japanese side has no need to make a fuss about nothing or to take this personally.”
