The US administration has no plans to sell weapons to China and has not made such an offer to Beijing, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials. According to one of them, Washington does not intend to sell American weapons to the Chinese government. Another official said that such sales are prohibited by US law and that neither plans nor offers have been made to China.
The clarification was prompted by a statement by US Ambassador to China David Perdue. In an interview with Fox News, he said that President Donald Trump “at one point“ asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping if he wanted to buy American weapons. Perdue did not specify when the comment was made or how Xi reacted.
“President Trump keeps saying: we sell weapons to other countries around the world. At one point, he asked President Xi if he wanted to buy some,“ David Perdue said.Discrepancy between statement and official position
The ambassador's comment came in a conversation about US arms sales to Taiwan and relations between Washington and Beijing. Perdue defended Trump's policy toward Taiwan, even though China considers the island part of its territory and opposes US military support for it.
After the statement, US officials told The Wall Street Journal that the administration was not preparing a deal with China. According to them, selling US defense equipment to Beijing is inconsistent with current restrictions on the export of arms and military technology. US arms control rules require the denial of licenses for defense exports to countries that are subject to a ban.
Taiwan remains the main contentious issue
The statement comes after Trump and Xi met in Washington. US arms sales to Taiwan are among the most sensitive topics in relations between the two countries. Perdue said the Trump administration has sold more weapons to Taiwan than any previous US president since 1979, but did not provide specific figures in the interview to support the comparison.
So far, Washington's publicly confirmed position is that there are no plans to sell weapons to China. There has been no official proposal to Beijing from President Trump or the US administration.
Sources: Wall Street Journal, Fox News