Federal restrictions bar defense exports to China, yet Washington continues to antagonize Beijing by supplying Taiwan
US President Donald Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping whether Beijing would be interested in buying American weapons, according to Washington’s ambassador to China, despite longstanding restrictions on military exports to the country.
Ambassador David Perdue revealed the exchange during an interview with Fox News Sunday while discussing Trump’s approach to China and continued American weapons sales to Taiwan.
“President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,’” Perdue said. “He actually asked President Xi if he would like to buy some at one point.”
The ambassador did not say when Trump raised the idea, what weapons were discussed or how Xi responded. The two leaders have met twice this year – in Beijing in May and during Xi’s three-day state visit to Washington last week.
Any actual sale would face major legal hurdles, as Congress restricted the export of defense articles on the US Munitions List to mainland China in 1990. The restrictions remain subject to limited exceptions and presidential national-interest determinations but have effectively maintained a US arms embargo on Beijing for decades.
Washington nevertheless remains Taiwan’s principal foreign weapons supplier while officially maintaining its one-China policy. The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act states that the US will make defense articles and services available to the island in quantities deemed necessary for it to maintain a “sufficient self-defense capability.”
Beijing considers Taiwan part of China and has repeatedly demanded that Washington end such military support, arguing that the sales violate its sovereignty and destabilize relations across the Taiwan Strait. Ahead of Xi’s Washington visit, the Chinese Defense Ministry urged the US to exercise “extreme caution” on the issue.
The Trump administration approved an $11 billion package for Taiwan last December, the largest announced to date. Another package worth roughly $14 billion has remained on hold for months, with Trump describing it as a “very good negotiating chip.” The White House’s post-summit materials did not announce any decision on the stalled package.
Perdue made his remark while defending Trump’s record on Taiwan, claiming the president has already authorized substantially more weapons for the island than his predecessors. The ambassador portrayed Trump’s question to Xi as characteristic of his deal-making approach rather than evidence that a formal sale was being considered.
It is also unclear what Washington could realistically offer Beijing that China does not already produce domestically. China is self-sufficient across most major conventional weapons categories, while widely cited rankings placing it behind the US are based on dollar-denominated arms revenues rather than physical output.
In shipbuilding, where production can be compared more directly, China’s industrial capacity is estimated at roughly 230 times that of the United States. That leaves cutting-edge technologies and know-how in areas where Washington still retains an advantage – precisely the capabilities the US treats as highly sensitive and is unlikely to share with its principal strategic rival.
