WASHINGTON –

Two Democrats in the U.S. Congress urged U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday to support Japan in the face of China’s escalating economic and military coercion against the U.S. ally.

Beijing’s actions "threaten Japan’s economic stability and undermine broader security and strategic interests across the Indo-Pacific," the lawmakers said in a joint letter to Trump.

The lawmakers are Ami Bera, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, and Gregory Meeks, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"The use of locked radar against Japanese military aircraft in recent days is consistent with Beijing’s destabilizing provocations in the Taiwan Strait and the South and East China Seas," they said.

They said the Trump administration should reconsider tariffs on Japan, one of the United States’ closest allies, in sectors directly affected by China’s coercive actions.

Providing tariff relief to Japan would "send a clear message that the United States ... is prepared to back its allies when they are targeted for exercising their sovereign rights," the letter said.

According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, Chinese military aircraft from the naval carrier Liaoning intermittently directed radar at Japanese Self-Defense Forces fighter jets near Okinawa Prefecture on Saturday.