Australia ‘surprised’ as White House denies President Donald Trump’s China weapons offer in Taiwan discussion

A stunning claim that Donald Trump offered to sell weapons to China during a meeting with its leader Xi Jinping last week has caused surprise among close allies including Australia but is now being played down by US officials.

During a discussion about Taiwan policy, US ambassador to China David Perdue told Fox News: “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.”

“There are continuing conversations about other sales, (Trump) and President Xi talk about that every time they get together,” Mr Perdue said in the interview broadcast on Sunday, adding the US position has not changed.

Taiwan, a self-governing island which Beijing considers its own, has been waiting for the Trump administration to approve a new arms sales package worth $US14 billion ($20b).

Beijing has repeatedly declared it “resolutely opposes” Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan, which it regards as a breakaway province, and has not renounced the use of force to take over the territory it has never ruled.

President Trump’s level of commitment to protecting Taiwan has also been questioned, and during a meeting with President Xi in May he described the arms package as a “very good negotiating chip” in dealings with China.

Ambassador Purdue also insisted that Washington’s policy stance towards the tiny democratic nation remains unchanged, saying: “we don’t support independence, and we don’t support coercion”.

When later asked to clarify Ambassador Perdue’s remarks on weapons exports, the White House said through an official that the United States had no plans to sell arms to China.

The State Department also said in a statement that: “US law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China.”

Privately Australian officials have expressed some surprise at Ambassador Purdue’s claim on arms sales to China, but the Albanese government has not publicly commented on the US diplomat’s statement.

Ahead of the Ambassador’s interview, Taiwanese deputy foreign minister Chen Ming-chi warned of the severe military threat China posed to his nation and the “severe situation in the Taiwan Strait”.

“Even though China’s economy is declining, it continues investing more resources into building military capacity. Under ‌this context, the US very much understands our defence needs,” he told reporters in Taipei.

Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles has repeatedly warned that China is engaged in the biggest conventional military build-up since the second world war and called on Beijing to give greater transparency and reassurance on its actions.

Greens Senator David Shoebridge, a longstanding critic of the US alliance, has seized on Ambassador Purdue’s comments saying they highlighted the danger of being too closely aligned to the Trump administration.

“Liberal, Labor, One Nation have all wrongly assume that the US and Australia’s interests as identical. That was never true and we are seeing more and more how distant they really are,” he told The Nightly.

“Even if this is just a midnight Trumpian thought bubble and ramble, the fact it was even said is extraordinary. On the upside at least Trump is proposing the Chinese government pay for US weapons, unlike Australia who ships them to Hong Kong for free.”

Earlier this month it was revealed that F-35 fighter jet parts bound for the United States from Australia had unexpectedly been diverted to the Chinese controlled territory of Hong Kong, sparking multiple investigations including from the Defence department.

Last week a bipartisan delegation of federal politicians led by Deputy Senate Speaker Slade Brockman visited Taiwan where senior officials thanked the Australian Government and Parliament for “their long-standing friendship and support”.

Delegation leader, and Senate Deputy President Slade Brockman was quoted in local media as saying Australia and Taiwan faced shared geopolitical challenges in the Indo-Pacific.