Back in the day, US presidents used to refer to the shared experience of fighting Japanese imperialism during World War II to persuade the Chinese government to cooperate with us. This kind of appeal worked with some individual Chinese citizens who had suffered through the war, but not with the regime.
Xi has flipped the script. During last week’s summit, he argued that Japan was becoming militaristic again, and that America and China should work together to prevent a revival of Japanese imperialism.
LOL. The real issue for America is Japanese pacifism, not militarism.