David Perdue’s remarks come after a Taiwanese minister spoke of the ‘severe’ military threat posed by Beijing to the self-ruled island

Donald Trump offered to sell weapons to China while hosting its leader, Xi Jinping, last week, the US ambassador to China said on Sunday.

David Perdue told Fox News on Sunday: “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.”

The extraordinary claim came during an interview about US policy on Taiwan, which has been waiting for months for Trump to approve a new arms sales ⁠package worth $14bn, after a record multi-billion dollar deal was unveiled in December last year.

Trump’s level of commitment to protecting Taiwan has previously been questioned. At a meeting with Xi in Beijing in May, ⁠Trump said he was keeping the $14bn Taiwan arms sales package in abeyance, describing it as a “very good negotiating chip” in dealings with China.

  • hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    War and petroleum, the two remaining pillars of American economic might.

    We used to manufacture things, until the capital class realized we can sell off that productive capacity to developing nations, nations that don’t protect worker’s rights, to the lowest bidder. Even the weapons we manufacture here are sourced from parts in Asia.

    So whole proposal is fucking stupid. Why would China buy weapons from the USA at a premium, when they could just manufacture weapons themselves? They have the parts and raw materials right there.