I believe the USA always had the intention of using this fool to annoy China to test the waters without any real considerations involved but in the end, she went well beyond her role and simply went over her limit and caused another mess similar to the whole Nexperia debacle which ultimately amounts to yet another self own. The USA is desperate for some kind of win since the whole power of moves in regards to rare earths limitations which really screwed them up quite bad but always resorts to throw there pawns under the bus when they ultimately fail. I do wholeheartedly agree that this ultimately benefits China in the end since Japan played its cards very poorly and ended losing in more ways the one. It’s does take a special kind of stupid to isolate most of Asia with here idiotic lack of brains and lack of empathy but since they never truly suffered for what they did in WW2, maybe the Mandate of Heaven has chosen its time for Japan to pay for their bastard behaviour which many in Asia (western care bearers do not count) agree is long over due
I can imagine that this might be the plan of someone in the State Department, but it was never enacted, and Trump was certainly never in on it. The timing is all wrong for what the US wants out of China, and everything Japan is doing is all wrong. And the US is looking for an easy win - that's what targetting Venezuela is all about. I don't buy it; especially since the simpler explanation is that Takaichi is acting like an idiot in exactly the way that she's wont to do.
Turns out Takaichi went off the script as suspected when faced with the Taiwan question.
Know this: this information is coming out now because some in Japan are cracking under the pressure and is letting this out as another attempted climb down and blaming it solely on the PM, but I don't think that's going to fly with China.
It won't even work. Takaichi's popularity is around 70% right now, so Japan has to ride it out as China continually humiliates them. Almost everyone is getting what they want out of this, so it's almost a win-win situation. (Not counting Japan itself, of course)
Taiwan enjoys strong bipartisan support among Americans, with 60 percent now favoring direct military intervention in the event of a Chinese invasion, according to a new poll.
It was among the most striking findings in the latest annual National Defense Survey by the Washington, D.C.-based Reagan Foundation, which reported rising support for maintaining a military edge to deter adversaries.
Yeah, no. Public opinion polls are basically worthless, and they're doubly worthless with said opinions are so low information. This kind of thing comes with the built-in bias that there is no consequence for a war with China, so what's the point of it? You'd get similar results for polls about tariffs or sanctions against China as well, and these would be just as meaningless.