Japan seeks a bilateral summit between Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the November 2026 APEC leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen, but Beijing has declined and instead offered talks with Premier Li Qiang. Tensions stem from Takaichi’s November 2025 remarks on a potential Japanese response to a Taiwan contingency, which prompted Chinese criticism of “militarism,” export restrictions on rare earths, and other pressure. During their September 2026 Washington summit, U.S. President Trump urged Xi to engage Takaichi and ease curbs, yet Xi kept the Japan dispute separate from U.S.-China ties. Recent Japanese outreach, including a late-September visit by former foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya and Takaichi’s October 5 policy speech describing China as an “important neighbor,” has produced mixed signals without confirmed progress toward a leader-level meeting.