“Even the discussion of this puts the Chinese on notice.”
No matter how strong China is they are scared shitless of the Japanese.
I thought Trump’s second overseas travel where he stopped at Japan first before going to China was well played.
They should be. The Japanese are perfectionists and believe in high quality. The Chinese, not so much. If given a chance, the Japanese can build high quality military hardware that can destroy anything the Chinese throw at them. Chinese may have some smart people, but the Japanese are smarter and better at building high quality machines.
Taiwan used to be a Japanese territory for half a century until they lost it at the end of WWII. During that time, they greatly improved quality of life for the Taiwanese, bringing them from third-world conditions into 20th-century living. When the Chinese took over Taiwan after WWII, the infrastructure was not maintained under Chinese rule and Taiwanese missed having the Japanese in charge. Even to this day, Taiwan is the most pro-Japanese nation in Asia. The Chinese know the Japanese are a force to contend with.