US President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping whether Beijing would be interested in buying American weapons, Washington's envoy to China has revealed.
"President Trump continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world. He (US president) actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point," US Ambassador to China David Perdue told Fox News on Sunday.
Trump hosted Xi for a high-stakes summit at the White House on Thursday. The two leaders met again Friday for a private tea session and reviewed pictorial and text archives in Washington before Xi flew home, concluding his three-day state visit to the US.
Perdue did not say how Xi responded.
Describing Xi's state visit to the US as "successful," Beijing on Monday said it is "dedicated to world peace."
"China has built its military based on its own needs and is dedicated to safeguarding world peace and stability," Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters in Beijing.
Perdue made the remarks while defending Washington's continued arms sales to Taiwan.
"President Trump continues to say, 'Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,'" Perdue said.
A US State Department official subsequently told the South China Morning Post that US law prohibits arms sales to China and that Washington has "no offer or plan" to sell weapons to Beijing.
Perdue said Washington's Taiwan policy had not changed, citing the one-China policy, Taiwan Relations Act, three US-China communiques and Six Assurances.
"We don't support independence and we don't support coercion," he said, adding that Trump had approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan and authorized 50% more arms transfers than any US president since 1979.
The US has previously sold weapons to China. During closer US-China strategic cooperation against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Washington supplied Beijing with military equipment, including AN/TPQ-37 counter-artillery radars and Mark-46 torpedoes.
US government-to-government arms sales were subsequently halted, with no new Foreign Military Sales agreements opened after 1990, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
Beijing considers Taiwan part of China and has repeatedly opposed US arms sales to the island.
