U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is questioning President Trump’s position on China after U.S. Ambassador David Perdue said Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he wanted to purchase American weapons.
“Trump says we need to spend $1.5 trillion on the Pentagon because we need to ‘beat’ China,” Sanders wrote. “Trump says we can’t have any guardrails on AI because we need to ‘beat’ China. If China is our so-called enemy, then why is Trump offering to sell them American weapons?”
Trump says we need to spend $1.5 trillion on the Pentagon because we need to “beat” China.
Trump says we can’t have any guardrails on AI because we need to “beat” China.
If China is our so-called enemy, then why is Trump offering to sell them American weapons? https://t.co/xmqBupzjFi
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 28, 2026
Perdue made the remarks Sunday while discussing U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan with Fox News host Shannon Bream. Asked if Trump was withholding arms from Taiwan to please Xi, Perdue replied that Trump “is as strong on Taiwan as I’ve ever seen anybody” and said the two presidents continue to discuss future sales to the island.
“But President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,’” Perdue said. “He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some, at one point.”
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping at one point if he would to like to buy some American armaments, US Ambassador to China David Perdue says.
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) September 27, 2026
The disclosure surprised foreign-policy observers because China is subject to a U.S. arms embargo imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. The State Department responded Monday by saying: “U.S. law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China.”
Trump also denied Perdue’s account when a reporter asked him about it. “To China? You mean to Taiwan?” the president replied, according to The Associated Press. “I never heard of that one. I’m going to have to ask him.”
After denying that the conversation occurred, Trump entertained the idea of selling American weapons to Beijing.
Trump said China would want to buy American equipment because “our equipment is the best in the world.” He added: “So maybe it’s a good idea. But we didn’t discuss it. He may have been talking about Taiwan. I think he was probably talking about Taiwan.”
Taiwan is waiting for several American weapons orders, including 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased in 2019. Trump placed a proposed $14 billion arms package for Taiwan on hold after meeting with Xi in Beijing in May and later called arms sales to the island a “very good negotiating chip.”
Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Tuesday that the recent Trump-Xi summit had not ended discussions with Washington.
“Regarding the ongoing military sales cases, we are also in continuous discussions with the U.S. side,” Koo said. “Each case requires concrete cooperation. To my knowledge, we have not received any notifications of changes so far.”
[NOTE: China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has repeatedly demanded that Washington stop supplying the island with weapons. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, though Washington does not formally recognize Taiwan as an independent country.]