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

While strengthening recent bilateral ties, U.S. President Donald Trump offered to sell weapons to China while hosting its leader, Xi Jinping, last week.

The unexpected revelation was dropped publicly by U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue—sent immediate ripples through diplomatic channels, forcing the State Department into rapid damage control.

Coming on the edge of delicate negotiations over a multi-billion-dollar defense package for Taiwan, the unscripted pitch underscored the president's unique, highly transactional approach to superpower diplomacy.

David Perdue told Fox News on Sunday, “President Trump continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world. He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point.”

As reported, the US Ambassador sent shockwaves through Washington and foreign policy circles by revealing an extraordinary diplomatic exchange.

Donald Trump casually asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping if Beijing would be interested in purchasing American military hardware.

Perdue’s remarks come after a Taiwanese minister spoke of the ‘severe’ military threat posed by Beijing to the self-ruled island.

The extraordinary claim came during an interview about US policy on Taiwan, which has been waiting for months for Trump to approve a new arms sales package worth $14bn, after a record multi-billion-dollar deal was unveiled in December last year.

Trump’s level of commitment to protecting Taiwan has previously been questioned. At a meeting with Xi in Beijing in May, Trump said he was keeping the $14bn Taiwan arms sales package in abeyance, describing it as a “very good negotiating chip” in dealings with China.

Following the interview, State Department officials scrambled to clarify that federal law strictly prohibits arms sales to China, confirming there are "no offers or plans" to supply Beijing with military equipment.

However, after Purdue’s interview, the White House clarified the New York Times, that the US had no plans to sell arms to China, while the state department said: “US law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China.”