Rubio says US can support Japan while working with China

Takashi Nakamichi, Bloomberg News on Dec 20, 2025

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The U.S. can maintain close ties with Japan while pursuing productive engagement with China, even as tensions rise between Asia’s two largest economies, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

“We feel very strongly that we can continue with our strong, firm partnership and alliance with Japan, and do so in a way that continues to allow us to find productive ways to work together with the Chinese,” Rubio said at a news conference Friday in Washington.

Relations between the two Asian nations have been strained since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi enraged Beijing by suggesting her nation’s troops could be drawn into a Taiwan crisis. As ties between the two neighbors soured, U.S. President Donald Trump stepped in to try and de-escalate the row and preserve his trade truce with Beijing.

“There’ll be points of tension,” Rubio said. “We well recognize that, and our job is to balance these two things. I think both sides understand that.”

Earlier this month, a Chinese fighter jet for the first time trained its fire-control radar on Japanese military aircraft, escalating the diplomatic standoff. Beijing accused Japan of disrupting its air training.

Beijing has also accused Takaichi of interfering in its internal affairs and issued economic and diplomatic reprisals, demanding that she retract the remark. The Japanese prime minister refused to withdraw the comments, arguing that there is no change in Japan’s position.

China will “continue to be a rich and powerful country and a factor in geopolitics,” Rubio said. “We have to have relations with them.”

The U.S. can balance the need to deal with tensions associated with China and the need to collaborate, he said. “We can do that without imperiling or in any way undermining our very firm commitment to our partners in the Indo-Pacific,” Rubio added.