President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping whether China wanted to buy weapons from the United States, the US ambassador to China has said.
David Perdue said Mr Trump raised the prospect of arms sales from the US to its ascendant geopolitical rival, an unlikely offer that, if it came to fruition, would upend generations of US policy towards China and Taiwan and expose US technology to a potential foe.
Mr Perdue, speaking to Shannon Bream on Fox News Channel's Fox News Sunday days after Mr Trump hosted Mr Xi for a state visit in Washington, did not specify when the offer was made.
Ambassador defends Trump's Taiwan record
Mr Perdue said on Sunday that Mr Trump, a Republican, was downplaying longstanding US arms sales to Taiwan – which have drawn protest from Beijing for years – by couching it as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world, and even asking Mr Xi if he would be in the market for US weaponry.
Bream had cited concerns from Republican and Democratic legislators over delayed aid packages and weapons orders to Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that seeks to defend itself from China's threat to invade the island.
Bream asked if the US is denying arms to Taiwan to appease the Chinese president, who visited Mr Trump last week.
Mr Perdue pushed back on the suggestion, stating that Mr Trump "is as strong on Taiwan as I've ever seen anybody" and has sold it plenty of weapons.
Trump and Xi discuss future Taiwan arms sales
Mr Perdue also said Mr Trump and Mr Xi continue to talk about future US weapons sales to Taiwan.
"But President Trump continues to say, 'Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world'," Mr Perdue said. "He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some, at one point."
The offer "speaks to (Trump's) treatment of China in almost exclusively commercial terms, even at the potential expense of the US military position in Asia", said Evan Sankey, an analyst focused on US policy towards China at the Cato Institute.
He said the US last sold arms to Beijing in the 1980s and resuming those sales would be "a shocking policy change".
US law and the Taiwan arms question
The US is bound by its own laws to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
While not recognising Taiwan as a country, the US is the island's strongest informal backer and arms provider.
But multiple US leaders have left ambiguous whether they would commit military force to defend the US ally should China invade.
China has pressed Washington to halt the arms sales, most prominently during a previous summit in May between Mr Trump and Mr Xi in Beijing.
After that meeting, the United States paused the sale of a record-breaking 14 billion dollar package – and Mr Trump described arms sales to Taiwan as a "very good negotiating chip" with China.
In their private talks at the White House last week, Mr Xi pressed Mr Trump to oppose Taiwan independence, according to Chinese state media.
Beijing responds
In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun did not confirm Mr Perdue's remarks when asked about the matter on Monday.
But he told reporters that China has always strengthened its national defence capabilities based on its needs and is committed to maintaining world peace and stability.
