Perdue says Trump asked Xi if China wanted US arms

• US ambassador to China David Perdue said Trump had asked Xi Jinping whether he wanted to buy American weapons.
• Perdue said only that it happened “at one point”. Mediaite placed it during Xi’s three-day US visit last week.
• The remark came as Perdue defended Trump’s record on Taiwan, where a proposed $14bn US arms sale remains unresolved.
• Trump had not announced a decision on the package after meeting Xi in Washington on 24 September.

In an interview with Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream on 27 September, Perdue said: “President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world.’ He actually asked President Xi if he would like to buy some, at one point.”¹

Perdue did not say what weapons Trump meant or how Xi responded. Mediaite reported that the question came during Xi’s three-day US visit last week, but Perdue’s quoted account does not identify a date or setting, or make clear whether the question was a serious proposal, a joke or a rhetorical aside.¹

The exchange arose as Perdue defended Trump’s approach to Taiwan. Asked whether Washington was withholding weapons to appease Xi, the ambassador said Trump was “as strong on Taiwan as I have ever seen anybody” and claimed he had sold more arms to Taiwan than any president since 1979.²

The unresolved package is worth about $14bn. Trump put it in abeyance after meeting Xi in Beijing in May. After their Washington summit on 24 September, he had not announced what he would do next, Reuters reported.³

Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister, Chen Ming-chi, said the summit had not changed US policy towards Taiwan, while acknowledging Trump had spoken vaguely. Taipei would keep communicating with Washington about the meeting and the pending package, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.⁴

Two US senators, Democrat Elissa Slotkin and Republican Thom Tillis, urged Trump on 23 September to notify Congress and proceed. They said the package had been pre-approved by Congress in January 2025 and would be funded by Taiwan. Their appeal underscored that it had not yet moved forward; reporting in May said its precise weapons breakdown was unclear.⁵⁶

Footnotes

1. Mediaite, “Trump Offered to Sell American Weapons to China’s Xi Jinping, US Ambassador Says” ↩ ↩²

2. The Politic Review, “US Ambassador to China David Perdue Weighs in on President Trump’s Meeting with Xi Jinping” ↩

3. Reuters, via Investing.com, “Arming Taiwan an important US interest, Taipei official says after Trump-Xi summit” ↩

4. Focus Taiwan, “U.S. Taiwan policy unchanged after Trump-Xi summit: Deputy FM” ↩

5. Office of Senator Elissa Slotkin, “Slotkin, Tillis Push Trump to Move Forward with Taiwan Arms Sale Ahead of Xi Visit” ↩

6. The Washington Post, “Iran war, China thaw complicate U.S. support for Taiwan” ↩