After President Donald Trump met with Xi Jinping in Washington last month, U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue startled many observers when he said in an interview that the president had made an off-the-cuff offer to sell American weapons to Beijing. The offer must have surprised the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, who seeks not to buy American weapons but rather to stop their sale to Taiwan.
Washington should resist Xi’s pressure to keep arms sales to Taiwan in a holding pattern. Not only does Taiwan need these weapons for its defense, but backing down in the face of such pressure would signal to every ally and adversary that American commitments are negotiable.
Read the full piece in National Review →