Trump: China would ‘probably like to buy’ U.S. arms

President Donald Trump on Monday denied discussing U.S. weapons sales to China with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a day after his ambassador to Beijing said Trump had floated the idea, though Trump added that China would “probably like to buy” American arms.

Trump was asked by reporters about comments by David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China, who said on “Fox News Sunday” that Trump had raised selling weapons to Beijing during his recent meeting with Xi, The Hill reported.

“I never heard of that one,” Trump said. “I don’t have to ask him. You mean we’re going to sell? No, they’d probably like to buy it because we do make better equipment than that, so maybe it’s a good idea. But we didn’t discuss. He may have been talking about Taiwan. I think he probably was talking about that.”

In his Sunday interview with host Shannon Bream, Perdue said Trump had played down U.S. arms sales to Taiwan in his talks with Xi by describing them as one of many weapons deals the United States makes with other countries.

“President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,'” Perdue said.

Bream pointed to concerns from lawmakers in both parties about delays in delivering weapons and aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its territory and has threatened to take by force. Perdue rejected the suggestion that Washington had slowed arms shipments to Taiwan to keep Xi happy. He said Trump “is as strong on Taiwan as I’ve ever seen anybody” and that the two leaders would return to the subject of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan in future talks.

Selling weapons to China would run against long-standing U.S. policy. The United States has banned arms sales to China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, and the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 commits Washington to providing Taiwan with weapons for its self-defense. The United States does not formally recognize Taiwan as a country, and past administrations have avoided saying whether U.S. forces would defend the island if China attacked.

Trump gave his meeting with Xi a glowing review on Monday. “I would rate it at 12,” he said, on a scale of 10, describing the talks as “very respectful, very good, great meeting.”

He has confirmed he will meet Xi twice more before the end of the year: at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China in November and at the Group of 20 summit in Miami in December.

In November 2025, Trump warned in a “60 Minutes” interview with CBS News that China would face “consequences” if it invaded Taiwan. Pressed by Norah O’Donnell on what those consequences would be, he declined to say, adding that “the other side knows.”