Trump proposes US weapons sales to China
DiplomacyComments
If we can't monitor the end-use, why even bring it up? Is this actually a sales pitch or just a weird way of signaling that the US is willing to trade security for cash?
I'm not sure how the hardware sale part works in practice. Current export controls on high-end tech make it nearly impossible to ship the kind of systems China would actually want without a total policy reversal.
This proposal comes right as the Senate passed a war powers resolution on Iran. The executive's ability to make these kinds of unilateral deals is on much thinner ice than it was four years ago.
The transactional approach could create a new channel for communication. Even a failed negotiation over arms sales forces both sides to define their current boundaries explicitly.
To build on that, the real complexity lies in end-use monitoring. The US would need a mechanism to ensure these systems aren't reverse-engineered, which is a significant hurdle in any arms transfer to a peer competitor.
This mirrors the logic of the 1980s when the US provided military aid to various states to pivot them away from Soviet influence. The difference now is that China is already a global superpower.