David Perdue said Donald Trump asked Xi Jinping whether China would like to buy US weapons during last week’s Trump-Xi summit. The remark put Trump and China back at the center of Taiwan policy, after months of waiting on a $14bn arms package.
Perdue said on Sunday that Trump asked Xi whether China would like to buy some US weapons. He said on, “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.”
Trump-Xi summit in Beijing
The ambassador had already told CNBC on Friday that there had been no change in Taiwan policy by Trump, including on arms sales. In May, Trump met Xi in Beijing and said he was keeping the $14bn Taiwan arms sales package in abeyance, calling it a “very good negotiating chip” in dealings with China.
Chen Ming-chi told reporters in Taipei that “Taiwan faces a severe situation in the Taiwan strait. Even though China’s economy is declining, it continues investing more resources into building military capacity. Under this context, the US very much understands our defence needs,” while Taiwan waited for Trump to approve the package. Xi urged Trump to oppose Taiwan independence during their Washington meeting last week, according to Xinhua.
White House and state department
The White House told after Perdue’s interview that the US had no plans to sell arms to China. The state department said US law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China. That leaves the Trump and China exchange in a narrow space: Trump can discuss Taiwan and arms sales with Xi, but any actual sale to China runs into the legal line drawn by Washington.
Perdue’s comments add a direct question for Taiwan as it waits on the $14bn package. If Trump was using the idea as leverage, the next practical issue is whether he keeps treating Taiwan arms sales as bargaining material or moves to approve the package under the Taiwan Relations Act.
