Ambassador David Perdue confirmed Sunday that President Donald Trump floated the idea of selling American weapons to Chinese President Xi Jinping during recent bilateral meetings.
Perdue made the disclosure during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” where host Shannon Bream pressed him on the nature of recent high-level talks between the two leaders.
“President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,'” Perdue told Bream during the interview.
The ambassador elaborated further, adding that Trump directly put the question to China’s leader. “He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some, at one point,” Perdue said.
The remarks carry significant weight given the deep and persistent tensions between Washington and Beijing over the past decade of diplomatic and economic rivalry.
The United States and China are locked in a fierce competition to dominate the development of advanced artificial intelligence technologies, a race that has shaped much of the bilateral relationship in recent years.
The two countries also hold fundamentally opposing positions on Taiwanese sovereignty, an issue that has repeatedly threatened to destabilize relations across the Pacific.
Adding further complexity, Beijing maintains active alliances with several nations considered adversaries of the United States, including Iran, complicating any potential defense cooperation between Washington and Beijing.
Despite these tensions, Trump confirmed on Friday that he plans to meet with Xi at least two additional times before the end of the year, signaling an ongoing effort to maintain direct communication.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said he will meet Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Meeting in Xi’s home country in November, with a further meeting also planned beyond that gathering.
The prospect of American arms sales to China would represent an extraordinary departure from decades of established U.S. defense and foreign policy, which has long restricted the transfer of sensitive military technologies to Beijing.
No specific weapons systems or formal proposals were mentioned by Perdue during the interview, and it remains unclear how seriously the suggestion was received by the Chinese side.
The disclosure is likely to draw sharp scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, particularly those who have pushed for tougher restrictions on any technology transfers to China.
