World Shifting: Alarm Bells 🚨 East Asia 🇰🇷🇯🇵

World News

PoliticsJapanTrump’s transactional diplomacy alarms Japan, South Korea December 4, 2025. Key US allies Japan and South Korea will likely be closely monitoring signals emanating from the Trump administration’s recent actions regarding Ukraine and China. There is growing concern in Asia that President Trump may prioritize China’s interests over those of its longstanding allies. Image: Daniel Torok/UPI Photo/IMAGO. Increasingly, observers in Tokyo and Seoul view President Trump’s approach – characterized as transactional foreign policy – as a potential threat to established alliance structures in northeast Asia. The administration’s recent 28-point “peace plan” for Ukraine, which ultimately represented a revision of maximalist demands previously presented by the Kremlin, fueled further anxieties. Despite the eventual development of a more moderate version of the plan and ongoing negotiations, the administration repeatedly signaled a willingness to abandon Ukraine. Furthermore, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated that President Trump intends to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as many as four times throughout 2026, including a state visit to Beijing in April and a reciprocal visit to the US later in the year. Bessent stated that these meetings would provide “great stability” to the bilateral relationship as Trump seeks to de-escalate ties with Xi following the trade war. While Seoul and Tokyo have remained officially silent on the matter, many analysts in Japan and South Korea interpret Washington’s strategy with caution.

Foreign policy under Trump has raised serious concerns, particularly following his perceived alignment with a dictator attempting to subjugate a smaller European nation. This has fueled anxieties that a similar scenario could unfold in the Pacific, with Taiwan increasingly viewed as the likely target. “The betrayal of Ukraine by Trump casts a long shadow over Asia and America’s allies in the region, who are now re-evaluating the reliability of their alliances with the United States,” stated Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University’s Tokyo branch. “Japan and Korea are observing Trump’s increasingly close relationship with authoritarian dictators in Russia, China, and North Korea, while simultaneously feeling shortchanged on trade and uncertain about a potential Taiwan contingency.” Kingston added that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was likely “disappointed” by Trump’s lack of immediate support during a recent dispute with Beijing. During her inaugural address to the Diet, in response to a parliamentary inquiry, Takaichi declared that any Chinese military intervention against Taiwan would constitute an “existential threat” to Japan and might necessitate a response from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. A Taiwanese minister, speaking to DW, expressed frustration, stating that the instruction not to “provoke” China was a “naive” response. “The concern in Japan now centers on the potential for the US and China to form a ‘G-2’ dynamic, effectively disregarding Tokyo’s influence.” South Korea, too, faces a similar predicament.

Tokyo shares a similar apprehension regarding the ongoing tensions, though Minister Takaichi may have mitigated some of that pressure by announcing that next year’s budget will see defense spending rise to 2% of Japan’s GDP. While this increase represents a step in the right direction, according to Tokyo, it may still fall short of President Trump’s demands. In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump was questioned about whether China constitutes a “friend” to the United States, given the dispute between China and Japan. “Many of our allies are not our friends either,” Trump responded, adding that “China has greatly exploited us … our allies have exploited us more in trade than China has.”