Trump asked Xi Jinping whether China would like to buy American weapons - U.S. ambassador

U.S. President Donald Trump proposed selling weapons to China while hosting its leader Xi Jinping last week, U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said on Sunday. UNN reports this, citing The Guardian.

Details

"President Trump keeps saying: 'Hey, we sell weapons to other people all over the world.' He even asked President Xi whether he would like to buy some weapons," David Perdue told Fox News on Sunday, September 27.

The unusual statement, the publication writes, came during an interview about U.S. policy toward Taiwan, which had been waiting for months for Trump's approval of a new $14 billion arms-sale package after a record multibillion-dollar deal was unveiled last December.

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Trump's level of commitment to defending Taiwan, it is noted, had previously been called into question. At a meeting with Xi in Beijing in May, Trump said he was postponing the $14 billion arms-sale package for Taiwan, calling it "a very good bargaining chip" in relations with China.

Washington, the publication writes, has long maintained a position of strategic ambiguity on whether it would defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion. But under the longstanding U.S. Taiwan Relations Act, it is required to provide Taiwan with sufficient military equipment for self-defense.

Beijing has repeatedly stated that it "firmly opposes" Washington's arms sales to the island democracy, which it considers a separatist province, despite never having ruled it, and has not renounced the use of force to achieve this. During their meeting in Washington last week, Xi urged Trump to oppose "Taiwan independence," according to a report by China's official news agency Xinhua.

After Perdue's interview, the White House told The New York Times that the U.S. did not plan to sell weapons to China, while the State Department said: "U.S. law prohibits arms sales to China, and there is no proposal or plan to sell weapons to China."

What Taiwan says

Before the interview, Taiwan's Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi spoke about the serious military threat posed by China.

"Taiwan is facing a serious situation in the Taiwan Strait. Even though China's economy is declining, it continues to invest more resources in building up its military capabilities. In this context, the United States understands our defense needs very well," he told reporters in Taipei.

Trump did not mention the sale at last week's summit, saying only on Saturday that Xi understood his position on Taiwan.

Perdue himself told CNBC on Friday that Trump's policy toward Taiwan, including on arms sales, had not changed.