Donald Trump on Monday denied asking Xi Jinping if he would like to buy American weapons, after the US ambassador to Beijing said the US president made the offer to his Chinese counterpart.
"I've never heard of that one," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the comments made by envoy David Purdue.
"They'd probably like to buy it because we do make better equipment than them, so maybe it's a good idea. But we didn't discuss it."
Trump's remarks come after US Ambassador to China David Perdue said the US President made an offer to sell arms to the rival superpower in response to Chinese concerns over weapons sales to Taiwan.
Trump's proposal came during Chinese president Xi's pomp-filled state visit to the White House last week, Perdue told Fox News presenter Shannon Bream.
But the State Department on Monday looked to distance the Trump administration from Perdue's comments, saying that "US law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China."
Perdue said Sunday that the Republican president was downplaying longstanding US arms sales to Taiwan — which have drawn protest from Beijing for years — by couching it as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world, and even asking Xi if he'd be in the market for US weaponry.
Bream had cited concerns from Republican and Democratic lawmakers over delayed aid packages and weapons orders to Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that seeks to defend itself from China's threat to invade the island. Bream asked if the US is denying arms to Taiwan to appease the Chinese president, who visited Trump last week.
Perdue pushed back on the suggestion, stating that Trump "is as strong on Taiwan as I've ever seen anybody" and has sold it plenty of weapons. Perdue also said Trump and Xi continue to talk about future US weapons sales to Taiwan.
"But President Trump continues to say, 'Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,'" Perdue said. "He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some, at one point."
The offer "speaks to (Trump's) treatment of China in almost exclusively commercial terms, even at the potential expense of the US military position in Asia," said Evan Sankey, an analyst focused on US policy toward China at the libertarian Cato Institute.
He said the US last sold arms to Beijing in the 1980s and resuming those sales would be "a shocking policy change."
Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the hawkish think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the anecdote that Perdue told offers "a revealing window into Trump's transactional worldview."
"He tends to see weapons, tariffs and market access as instruments of leverage, even across the traditional dividing line between allies and adversaries," Singleton said.
The offer to Xi also comes in contrast with US obligations under a domestic law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and deter invasion from Beijing, which has vowed to seize the island by force if necessary.
While not recognizing Taiwan as a country, the US is the island's strongest informal backer and primary arms provider. But multiple US leaders have left ambiguous whether they would commit military force to defend the island should China invade.
China has pressed Washington to halt the arms sales, most prominently during a previous summit in May between Trump and Xi in Beijing.
After that meeting, the United States paused the sale of a record-breaking $14 billion package — and Trump described arms sales to Taiwan as a "very good negotiating chip" with China.
In their private talks at the White House last week, Xi pressed Trump to oppose Taiwan independence, according to Chinese state media.
In Beijing, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun did not confirm Perdue's remarks when asked about the matter on Monday.
But he told reporters that China has always strengthened its national defense capabilities based on its needs and is committed to maintaining world peace and stability.
(With inputs from AFP and AP)