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U.S. Ambassador: Trump Asked Xi If China Wants to Buy American Arms
U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue revealed on "Fox News Sunday" that Trump, while downplaying U.S. arms sales to Taiwan to Xi Jinping, asked the Chinese leader whether he wanted to buy American arms.
Why it matters
The remark came from the serving U.S. ambassador to China on live television, at a sensitive moment: Washington is being accused of holding up arms deliveries to Taiwan to protect trade talks with Beijing. U.S. law requires arming Taiwan for self-defense, and under decades of strategic ambiguity, even floating arms sales to China would shake a policy framework allies rely on.
Full report
U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said Sunday (Sept. 27) on Fox News' "Fox News Sunday" that President Donald Trump, while discussing U.S. arms sales to Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping, told him "we sell arms to other people around the world" and at one point asked Xi whether he would like to buy some. Perdue did not say when or on what occasion the remark was made.
Host Shannon Bream relayed concerns from Republican and Democratic lawmakers that Washington is delaying aid packages and weapons deliveries to Taiwan to avoid upsetting Xi, who visited Trump in Washington last week. Perdue pushed back, saying Trump "is as strong on Taiwan as I've ever seen anybody" and has sold Taiwan plenty of weapons, adding that the two leaders continue to talk about future U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.
Perdue also said Trump has already approved $11 billion in arms for Taiwan, with more packages under discussion, and that the U.S. position is unchanged: "We don't support independence and we don't support coercion." The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether Trump was serious or joking about selling arms to China, first reported by the Financial Times.
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