It’s unclear if David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China, was trying to break new ground during his latest appearance on Fox News, but intentional or not, the former senator made an unexpected comment that reverberated loudly.
On “Fox News Sunday,” host Shannon Bream brought up the issue of Taiwan and congressional concerns about delayed assistance to the U.S. ally, specifically asking whether Donald Trump and his administration have delayed arms shipments as part of a White House effort to appease China’s Xi Jinping.
Perdue rejected the premise, insisting that the incumbent American president “is as strong on Taiwan as I’ve ever seen anybody.” But when asked about the timetable for additional arms shipments to Taiwan, the ambassador went considerably further. From the transcript:
Well, earlier, President Trump’s already approved $11 billion. There are continuing conversations about other sales. He and President Xi talk about that every time they get together.
But President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world.’ He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point?
At that point, the interview moved on to other subjects, but Perdue’s seemingly off-hand comment did not go unnoticed. The U.S. ambassador to China had just told a television audience that Trump offered to sell weapons to the Chinese president during Xi’s White House visit.
If that is true, it reflects a dramatic shift. Indeed, The Associated Press noted that the prospect of arms sales by the United States to its ascendant geopolitical rival “would upend generations of U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan and potentially expose U.S. technology to a potential foe.”
The New York Times added, “An admission that the American president offered to sell arms to China is extraordinary. The Communist-ruled nation is considered by most American policymakers and legislators of both parties to be the greatest military, economic and diplomatic rival of the United States — the only real challenger to America as a superpower.”
This also comes on the heels of reporting about F-35 parts recently ending up in Beijing’s possession under highly controversial circumstances.
But while it’s easy to imagine the ambassador’s comments sparking concerns in Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and elsewhere, let’s not lose sight of the fact that there have been months’ worth of reports about China helping Iran during the ongoing U.S. war against the Middle Eastern country.
Indeed, just a few days before Perdue’s Fox appearance, The Wall Street Journal reported Iranian customs data that showed Chinese entities “have made thousands of shipments of components used in drones and missiles” during the conflict.
What we’re left with, in other words, is a situation in which Trump wants to use weapons against Iran at the same time that he sells weapons to Iran’s most powerful ally.
When asked for comment, the White House told the Times that the U.S. had no plans to sell arms to China. That’s good to hear, I suppose, though it doesn’t explain Perdue’s assertion that Trump offered to sell arms to the Chinese president.
UPDATE (September 28, 2026, 3:10 p.m. ET): At an unrelated Oval Office event on Monday afternoon, Trump denied his own ambassador’s claim. “We didn’t discuss it,” he said in response to a question about asking Xi if he wanted to buy American-made weapons.
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