Trump claims to discuss arms control in China

June 2026
By Kelsey Davenport

US President Donald Trump presented a “denuclearization” proposal to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a state visit on May 14-15, Trump told reporters upon his return from Beijing.

“I talk about it all the time with Russia and with China, and it actually came up. We discussed” denuclearization, Trump said May 15 on Air Force One in response to a press question about his previous statement in January that he would seek to negotiate arms control with Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (See ACTMarch 2026.)

“I received a very positive response,” the president said.

“I don’t want to say that anyone is committed, but we have a very good understanding, you know, of the concept of denuclearization,” he said.

However, in a May 15 press release on the state visit, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi did not mention nuclear arms control, but said the two presidents had reached an agreement on “a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability.”

This new descriptor, repeated prominently in Chinese press releases regarding the state visit and in state-controlled media reporting, marks a new attempt by China to frame the complex and multidimensional bilateral relationship, and is as much about politics and economics as it is about the military balance of power.

In a May 17 fact sheet, the White House echoed the Chinese wording, confirming that the two presidents had agreed to “build a constructive relationship of strategic stability.”

The US fact sheet claimed that Trump and Xi agreed that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon” and that they had “confirmed their shared goal of denuclearizing North Korea,” but Chinese statements affirmed neither. (See ACTJune 2026.)

While the White House’s account of the meeting focused primarily on economic ties between the two countries, the Chinese counterpart, attributed to Wang, chose to foreground the broader strategic agreement allegedly reached between the two presidents.

Trump indicated in his comments on Air Force One that he viewed the nuclear arms control conversation between the United States and China as a start.

“We are going to be together four times, potentially, this year,” he stressed.

At a May 14 state banquet in Beijing, Trump invited Xi to visit the White House on September 24. Wang’s statement confirmed that “Xi will pay a state visit to the United States this fall.”

The two leaders could also meet again at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November, as well as at the Group of 20 summit in Miami in December.

Although details of the U.S. denuclearization concept remain scant, Trump in his comments on Air Force One rejected a reporter’s suggestion that the proposal was an extension of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, with China involved in some way. This treaty, which expired on February 5, only linked American and Russian nuclear forces.

Earlier this year, the United States “provided detailed proposals to Russia and China, as well as members of the P5, on possible initial steps, including transparency, risk reduction, and nuclear testing,” according to an April 29 statement by Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and Nonproliferation Christopher Yeaw, referring to the five nuclear-weapon states recognized under the Treaty of nuclear non-proliferation (NPT).

Yeaw made the statement on April 29 at the NPT Review Conference in New York, where state parties met from April 27 to May 22 to discuss the implementation of the founding treaty. (See ACTJune 2026.)

Diplomatic sources said Arms control today that they could not confirm that a written proposal had been submitted.

Trump also discussed arms sales to Taiwan with Xi, the US president said in his Air Force One interview, despite President Ronald Reagan’s long-standing assurance to Taiwanese leaders that Washington would not discuss arms sales to Taipei with Beijing.

Xi “talked about it. He talked about it obviously. So what am I going to do, say I don’t want to talk to you about it because I have an agreement that was signed in 1982?” » Trump said.

Speaking to NBC News on May 14, Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that “US policy on the Taiwan issue is unchanged to this day.”

An arms deal worth $14 billion, consisting mainly of air and missile defense interceptors, is awaiting Trump’s signature, Reuters reported on May 13.

“I’m keeping that up in the air, and it’s up to China. Frankly, it’s a very good negotiating tool for us,” Trump said in a May 15 interview with Fox News. Trump said the value of the deal was less, at about $12 billion.

In July 2024, China cited US arms sales to Taiwan to justify breaking off bilateral negotiations on nuclear risk reduction. (See ACTSeptember 2024.)

Taiwan’s parliament, controlled by the opposition, approved a special supplementary budget for defense on May 8, providing $25 billion to finance American weapons.

The move is a partial setback for President Lai Ching-te’s government, which had requested a larger special budget of nearly $40 billion to cover additional domestic purchases.