Trump Asked Xi If China Would Like to Buy US Arms, Envoy Says

David Perdue, the United States ambassador to China, said on Sunday that President Donald Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping whether Beijing would like to buy American weapons, a remark made during Xi's state visit to Washington last week that prompted the White House to deny any plan to sell arms to China.¹⁴⁹

The disclosure

Perdue made the comment on Fox News Sunday, telling host Shannon Bream that Trump had raised the idea with Xi directly during their talks. According to Perdue, Trump frequently points out that America supplies weaponry to numerous nations, and posed his query to Xi against that backdrop.⁵⁹

The remark came as Xi concluded a three-day state visit to Washington that included a state dinner at the White House. During the visit Xi pressed Trump in private talks to oppose Taiwanese independence, telling him he hoped Washington would maintain what Beijing calls its "correct position" on the issue.²³⁹⁶

Taiwan package still on hold

The disclosure came alongside continued uncertainty over a roughly $14 billion arms package for Taiwan, which Washington has held back ever since the two leaders' May encounter in Beijing. Trump has described the pending Taiwan sale as a "very good negotiating chip" in dealings with Beijing.²⁹¹

The package would follow an $11 billion arms sale to Taiwan that Trump's administration approved in December 2025, described as the largest such sale to date. Four Republican senators led by Mitch McConnell have written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urging the administration to proceed with further Taiwan arms sales.²⁶⁵

Taiwan's Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi said Washington grasps "very much" what the island needs for its defense and the military strain Beijing is placing on it. He said Taiwan faces a severe situation in the strait, noting that China continues investing in military capacity despite a declining economy.²¹

Denials from Washington

The White House and the State Department both said the United States has no plans to sell arms to China. The State Department said U.S. law prohibits such sales and that no offer or plan exists, a position it reiterated a day later.¹⁵⁸

U.S. law has barred the export of defense articles to China since arms embargoes were imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, an embargo that remains in force. One U.S. official informed reporters that the administration harbors no intention of arming China, while another added that federal statutes prohibit such transactions and that nothing has been proposed.⁶

When questioned about the timing of any future move on Taiwan, Trump replied, "Well, I think the 1980s is a long way. That's a big, far distance," and separately characterized the current state of relations by saying, "Right now, it's fine. It's just moving along."⁵

Reaction

Ryan Hass, who heads the Brookings Institution's China Center, said the episode erased any lingering uncertainty about Trump's security posture toward Beijing, and cautioned that it could rattle American allies vulnerable to pressure from China. Asia security expert Zack Cooper called the purported offer "demented," while former Bush administration Asia adviser Dennis Wilder suggested Trump may have been joking with Xi.⁵⁷

Perdue, for his part, said Trump 'has a schedule of his own' when asked when the withheld Taiwan sale might be signed, and separately told CNBC there had been no change in Trump's Taiwan policy.²¹