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US President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping whether Beijing would be interested in buying American weapons, US Ambassador to China David Perdue said, according to Fox News.
“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,” Perdue said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Trump hosted Xi at the White House on Thursday for a high-level summit. The leaders met again on Friday for a private tea session and reviewed pictorial and written archives in Washington before Xi returned to China, ending his three-day state visit.
Perdue did not disclose how Xi responded to Trump’s question.
US says it has no plan to sell weapons to China
Perdue made the remarks while defending continued US arms sales to Taiwan. A US State Department official later told the South China Morning Post that American law prohibits arms sales to China and that Washington has “no offer or plan” to sell weapons to Beijing.
Perdue said US policy towards Taiwan had not changed, referring to the one-China policy, the Taiwan Relations Act, three US-China communiques and the Six Assurances.
“We don’t support independence and we don’t support coercion,” he said, adding that Trump had approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan and authorised 50% more arms transfers than any US president since 1979.
China says its military policy is defensive
Beijing described Xi’s visit to the United States as successful and said it was “dedicated to world peace”.
“China has built its military based on its own needs and is dedicated to safeguarding world peace and stability,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters in Beijing on Monday.
China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has repeatedly opposed US arms sales to the island.
US arms sales to China halted after 1990
The United States previously supplied weapons and military equipment to China. During closer strategic cooperation against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Washington provided Beijing with systems including AN/TPQ-37 counter-artillery radars and Mark-46 torpedoes.
Government-to-government US arms sales to China were later halted. According to the US Government Accountability Office, no new Foreign Military Sales agreements with Beijing had been opened after 1990.
