President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping whether China would like to buy weapons from the United States, according to US Ambassador to China David Perdue.
Perdue said the offer was made, though he did not specify when. He spoke to Shannon Bream on Fox News Channel's Fox News Sunday, days after Trump hosted Xi for a state visit in Washington.
Perdue said Trump has downplayed longstanding US arms sales to Taiwan — which have drawn protest from Beijing for years — by presenting them as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world, and even asked Xi if he would be interested in US weaponry.
Taiwan Arms Sales and Congressional Concerns
Bream 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. She asked whether the US is denying arms to Taiwan to appease the Chinese president, who visited Trump last week.
Perdue pushed back on the suggestion, stating that Trump "is as strong on Taiwan as I've ever seen anybody" and has sold it plenty of weapons.
Perdue also said Trump and 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'," Perdue said.
"He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some, at one point."
Analyst: Offer Would Be a Shocking Policy Change
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.
Sankey said the US last sold arms to Beijing in the 1980s and that resuming those sales would be "a shocking policy change".
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's Response and Earlier Talks
China has pressed Washington to halt the arms sales, most prominently during a previous summit in May between Trump and Xi in Beijing.
After that meeting, the United States paused the sale of a record-breaking 14 billion dollar package — and Trump described arms sales to Taiwan as a "very good negotiating chip" with China.
In their private talks at the White House last week, Xi pressed Trump to oppose Taiwan independence, according to Chinese state media.
In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun did not confirm 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.
