Washington, Sep 29 — US President Donald Trump said that he had not discussed selling US military equipment to China during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, responding to an account attributed to his ambassador by a reporter at the White House.
The reporter asked whether Trump had suggested such a sale to Xi, citing remarks that US Ambassador to China David Perdue was said to have made on Fox News Sunday.
“To China?” Trump asked. When the reporter confirmed it, the President replied, “You mean to Taiwan?” The reporter repeated that Perdue had referred to China.
“I never heard of that one. I'm going to have to ask him,” Trump said. He then briefly entertained the idea before drawing a distinction about his meeting with Xi: “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 it.”
“He may have been talking about Taiwan. I think he probably was talking about Taiwan,” Trump added. He announced no proposed sale to either country and gave no indication that arms sales had been on the agenda with Xi.
The exchange came days after a state visit that Trump had praised earlier at the same White House event. Answering a separate question about the strategic importance of steel production, he said he had held “a great meeting with President Xi.” He rated it “a 12” on a scale of zero to 10 and called it respectful.
That favourable description offered no account of discussions on military equipment. The subject arose when the reporter raised Perdue’s reported television remarks. Trump’s answer left the ambassador’s exact words unresolved, while stating plainly that a sale to China had not been discussed with Xi.
Trump at the White House event announced a proposed steel investment in Iowa by a business associated with the Ruia family. He used the event to argue that the United States should make materials needed for its own defence, citing aircraft and tanks as examples.
He questioned whether Washington could rely on China for steel to build tanks. Trump then moved directly to his favourable assessment of his meeting with Xi. His remarks paired a call for greater American industrial capacity with an upbeat account of his diplomacy with Beijing.
Neither strand of those remarks established that military sales to China were under consideration. Asked directly about the reported suggestion, Trump distinguished between an idea raised in the question and what the leaders had actually discussed.
Later, during an exchange about Canadian trade, Trump said the United States got along with China and made deals with other countries. He did not return to military equipment or offer a further account of his conversation with Xi.