Trump Offered to Sell American Weapons to China’s Xi Jinping, US Ambassador Says

Mediaite

President Donald Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping if he would like to buy American weapons during the communist politician’s three day trip to the States last week, according to U.S. Ambassador to China David Purdue.  The ambassador shared the surprising news during an interview on Fox News Sunday with anchor Shannon Bream.  “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,” Purdue said.  The comment came as he defended Trump’s relationship with Taiwan, with Purdue arguing Trump has “already sold 50% more arms to Taiwan than any other president since 1979.” He said Trump’s support for an independent Taiwan should not be questioned, before saying the president is always in deal-making mode, even when it comes to potentially selling arms to America’s biggest rival.  There have been serious questions about China possibly assisting Iran in the ongoing conflict. Earlier this summer, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified before Congress that Russia and China were enabling Iran — which Trump later denied.  “I trust them,” Trump said of Xi and Vladimir Putin.  One hurdle to Trump potentially selling arms to China: it would violate U.S. law. China is one of a handful of countries the U.S. has an arms embargo against, with those restrictions ratcheted up following the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.  In related news, Purdue said there were three “huge” takeaways from Xi’s visit when it came to the Iran war. He said Xi supported “no nuclear weapon in Iran,” an open Strait of Hormuz, and no tolls for it to happen.  Following Xi boarding his flight back to China, the president celebrated the summit in a Truth Social post, saying it was “one of Friendship, Strength, and Success, for both China and the U.S.A.”

Transcript

00:00Okay, let's talk Taiwan, because there are billions in aid packages and arms and weapons

00:04orders from Taiwan that are sitting on the sidelines. A number of senators, including

00:08Republicans, they've sent a letter over to Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth saying they're

00:12very concerned about this. It reads in part, it's difficult to imagine how the United States

00:16might credibly project influence deterrence in the Indo-Pacific if the price of keeping

00:21up diplomatic appearances is denying our partners key deterrent capabilities.

00:26Are we denying what Taiwan says it needs to defend itself in order to appease Xi? And

00:32what is the message to Taiwan? Well, first of all, that's absolutely not the case. I can tell you,

00:37I've been in every one of these conversations. President Trump is as strong on Taiwan as I've

00:41ever seen anybody. He's made it very clear that we have not changed the one China policy.

00:46We support the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques, the six assurances. President Xi

00:51has heard that repeatedly from President Donald Trump. President Trump has already sold 50% more

00:57arms to Taiwan than any other president since 1979. And so I don't accept the premise that,

01:03you know, he's not doing all that we should be doing for Taiwan.

01:06Will those things move forward? Will the delays, whatever they may be on these,

01:11you know, $20 billion in aid and armaments, will that be expedited?

01:14Well, earlier, President Trump's already approved $11 billion. There are continuing conversations

01:20about other sales. He and President Xi talk about that every time they get together.

01:26But President Trump continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world.

01:31He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point? But our support for that has

01:37not changed. We don't support independence and we don't support coercion.

01:41Okay, let's talk about some other things.

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Transcript

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