Trump asked Xi if China wanted to buy US weapons: US ambassador

US President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping whether China would like to buy US weapons during Xi’s visit to Washington last week, US Ambassador to China David Perdue said on Sunday.

Perdue made the remarks in an interview with Fox News while discussing US policy towards Taiwan, which is awaiting approval of a proposed new US arms package worth around $14 billion.

According to The Guardian, Perdue said Trump told Xi that the US sells arms to countries around the world and asked whether the Chinese leader would like to buy some. Perdue did not provide further details on when the exchange took place or how Xi responded.

The remarks came as Taiwan has been waiting for months for approval of the proposed arms package. Trump had previously described the package as a “very good negotiating chip” in dealings with China.

The US has long maintained a policy of strategic ambiguity over whether it would intervene militarily if China attacked Taiwan. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, Washington is required to make defence equipment available to Taiwan to help it maintain its self-defence capability.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and has repeatedly opposed US arms sales to the island. During Xi’s visit to Washington last week, he urged Trump to oppose “Taiwan independence”, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

However, following Perdue’s interview, the White House told The New York Times that the US had no plans to sell weapons to China. The US State Department also said US law prohibits arms sales to China and that there was “no offer or plan” to sell arms to Beijing.

Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi separately described the military threat from China as severe, saying Beijing continued to invest in expanding its military capabilities despite economic challenges.

Trump has not publicly referred to the reported exchange since the summit. On Saturday (26 September), he said only that Xi understood his position on Taiwan.

Perdue also told CNBC on Friday that there had been no change in Trump’s Taiwan policy, including on arms sales.

The reported exchange comes amid continuing tensions over US arms sales to Taiwan and Beijing’s opposition to Washington’s defence ties with the island.