🧲 The US president asked China's leader to drop his export curbs on Japan, according to a Hong Kong newspaper. The reasons Donald Trump reportedly gave were American industry and a US-China deal.

First: this was reported, not confirmed

On October 8, 2026, the South China Morning Post (SCMP), an English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, reported that Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to lift China's export restrictions on Japan during their White House meeting on September 24. The curbs include rare earths, a group of elements used in motor magnets and electronic parts. Xi was in the US on September 23-25 for a state visit, his first in 11 years.

The paper's sources were people familiar with the discussions who spoke anonymously since they had no authorisation to speak publicly. As of October 8, 2026, no government in Washington, Beijing or Tokyo had publicly confirmed the exchange. The Mainichi Shimbun, right after summarizing the part of the SCMP story about the APEC summit, wrote that Japanese government officials have denied the SCMP's account.

Both reasons were American ones

According to the SCMP, Trump gave two reasons. In his telling, China's measures endangered American industries that depend on Japanese suppliers, the companies that provide parts and materials. And they amounted to an indirect breach of the trade truce the two countries reached in Busan, South Korea, in October 2025, a deal to pause their back-and-forth on tariffs and export controls.

The sources said Japan's case was not among the main items on Trump's agenda. Even so, Trump also urged Xi to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and repair ties with Tokyo.

Sanctions don't stop at the country you aim them at

According to Yomiuri Shimbun reporting cited by South Korea's Hankyoreh newspaper, China shipped 111 tonnes of rare earth magnets to Japan in July 2026, down 52.2% year on year. Shipments to the US that month were 647 tonnes, up 4.6% year on year and the second-highest since the controls began. China's total rare earth magnet exports fell only 3.6%. As of July, shipments to Japan of dysprosium and terbium, which go into high-performance magnets, had been zero for nine and eight straight months respectively.

At least for magnets in July, what the US buys directly from China did not shrink. What thinned out was the supply that passes through Japan. Outside China, Japan is the world's largest producer of rare earth magnets, but it relies heavily on China for the raw materials. When those materials dry up in Japanese factories, the magnets and parts made there become harder to get for factories abroad. That route is how the harm to American industry that Trump cited could arise.

We've covered how Japan has handled this squeeze in a piece comparing it with past industrial history, and the wider move away from China in this article.

What "indirect violation" means

The Busan truce was agreed at the US-China summit on October 30, 2025. The US halved its fentanyl-related tariff on Chinese goods to 10%, and China agreed to delay for one year the new rare earth export controls it had announced on October 9, 2025.

The measures aimed at Japan run on a separate track. On January 6, 2026, China's commerce ministry banned exports of dual-use items, goods with both civilian and military uses, to Japanese military users and any end use that could enhance Japan's military power. It did not list specific products. Because the measure targets Japan alone, it doesn't touch the wording of the truce. That gap is probably why Trump reportedly called it an "indirect" violation rather than a direct one.

As of October 2026, key truce measures are set to reach their one-year limit on November 10, 2026. For Washington, the curbs on Japan are also a test of whether the truce works.

Xi said the issues should be kept apart

According to the SCMP, Xi showed little interest and said the Japan-China dispute should be handled apart from relations between Washington and Beijing. He also reportedly told Trump that the danger of militarism in Japan was rising. Since Takaichi's November 7, 2025 remarks in parliament about a Taiwan contingency, Chinese officials have kept up criticism of Japan using phrases such as "new-style militarism."

Japan also came up between the two leaders in May. Kyodo News reported that at the May 14-15 summit in Beijing, Xi criticized Takaichi by name, calling her defense buildup a revival of "new-style militarism," and that Trump defended her, according to multiple diplomatic sources. As far as the reporting goes, Japan has now been argued over at two US-China summits in a row.

The Japan-China summit hasn't happened yet

The SCMP also reported that before the US-China summit, Japan had proposed a Takaichi-Xi meeting at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) leaders' summit scheduled for November 2026 in Shenzhen, China. China refused and offered a meeting with Premier Li Qiang instead, which Tokyo was reluctant to accept.

Tokyo's own view was set out by Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara at a January 9, 2026 press conference: China's export controls on rare earths and other items were seriously affecting global supply chains, and international rare earth trade should flow smoothly.

What Japan is doing on its own

Whether or not mediation works, Japan has been moving to reduce the dependence itself. Examples include a test that pulls rare earth mud from the deep seabed off Minamitorishima (related article) and the government's call for businesses to diversify suppliers (related article).

Curbs aimed at one country follow the flow of parts into factories in another. This report shows that the route itself can become an item on a summit agenda.

Which countries' parts keep the factories in your country running? And if one of those suppliers came under pressure from a third country, whom would your government speak to, and what would it say?

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