WASHINGTON — President Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping if he was interested in purchasing American weapons, US ambassador to China David Perdue said 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,” Perdue told “Fox News Sunday” in a surprise admission.
The Post reached out to the White House for clarification on whether Trump was serious or just trolling his Chinese counterpart.
The revelation comes after China is believed to have acquired sensitive F-35 fighter jet parts that had been sent to Hong Kong, for reasons that are not entirely clear.
During Xi’s three-day visit to the US, he and Trump discussed America’s arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governing island off China’s coast which Beijing claims as its territory.
The Trump administration had paused a roughly $14 billion weapons sale to Taiwan amid trade negotiations and pressure on US stockpiles caused by the wars in Iran and Ukraine.
“President Trump’s already approved $11 billion. There are continuing conversations about other sales. He and President Xi talk about that every time they get together,” Perdue replied when asked about the pause.
“Our support for that has not changed,” the ambassador added about America’s position on Taiwan. “We don’t support independence and we don’t support coercion.”
Beijing had demanded that countries doing business with it adhere to a “one China” principle in which Taiwan and the mainland are part of the same country. The US has long maintained a policy of strategic ambiguity over whether it will intervene militarily if China attempts to take Taiwan by force.
The Taiwan issue is usually a top topic during meetings between the leaders of the US and China.
Xi has not ruled out the use of military force to capture Taiwan, long insisting that the status quo cannot last forever and reunification must take place eventually.
Taiwan — which has its own government, currency, and military — has long rebuffed pressure to be ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.
During their talks, Trump also pressed Xi on China’s support for Iran and received assurances that Beijing was adjusting its policy, according to Perdue.
“President Xi assured him that changes had been made, that they were looking into it, they had looked into it,” the ambassador said.
“And we see some improvement in that. But it’s an ongoing effort that we have to make sure that they stay out of that.”
