President Trump made the offer to Xi Jinping, China’s leader, said David Perdue, the ambassador to China. The White House later said the U.S. had no plans for such a sale.
Page A4From§Eachthe midnight edition — 28 September 2026
White House denies offering China weapons the same week two pandas clear U.S. customs.
As it ran on the front
Two giant pandas landed in Atlanta Sunday morning aboard a Boeing 777 painted for the occasion — "FedEx Panda Express" — a dedicated cargo flight arranged under a new agreement between Zoo Atlanta and the Chinese government. Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are real, specific, and already on the ground.
Back up three days, to Thursday's state dinner at the White House. Xi Jinping stood beside Trump and announced the gift himself: the two pandas, plus invitations for 100,000 American students to study in China. "The giant panda has been an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and the American people," Xi said. CBS called it what decades of coverage have called it: panda diplomacy, animals and access exchanged on terms China sets and can revoke.…
…(cont) That same Thursday, former ambassador to China Nicholas Burns appeared on CBS and said he feared the president was taking too soft an approach with Xi. He didn't have the specifics yet. Three days later, he got them.
On Sunday, the sitting ambassador, David Perdue, supplied those specifics himself, on Fox News Sunday. Trump, Perdue said, told Xi: "We sell arms to other people around the world" — and asked whether Beijing wanted in. Not a completed sale. An offer, from the president, to Xi Jinping's government.
The White House said afterward there were no such plans.
Lay the week end to end. A state dinner where China hands over two bears and a hundred thousand student slots. A former ambassador voicing worry about softness that same afternoon. A current ambassador confirming, days later, exactly what the softness looked like. A White House walking the confirmation back before the week was out.
The gifts didn't get a denial. They cleared customs on schedule, government stamp and everything, pandas in a crate with their names on it and 100,000 visa invitations behind them. The arms offer got one, fast enough that outlets ran the denial in the same story as the news itself. Line up what got confirmed and un-confirmed this week and only one cargo actually crossed the Pacific without anybody in Washington trying to take it back.
“A president floats selling weapons to China on a Sunday show, and by the next statement it hadn't happened at all — that's not a clarification, that's a retraction with the ink still wet. The only cargo that actually touched down this week wasn't guns, it was two bears and a hundred thousand seats in Chinese colleges for our kids. Whoever decides what actually gets delivered around here, it isn't the guy at the podium doing the denying.”
“Look, the ambassador didn't say "sale," he said the president raised the idea — that's diplomacy, not commitment, and floating options with a foreign counterpart is what strong leadership actually — wait, are we now the ones saying arms offers to China are just friendly small talk? Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and not finish that sentence.”
The receipts
U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said Sunday that President Trump proposed selling weapons to China during recent meetings with the country’s president Xi Jinping. “President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,’”
BANGKOK (AP) — Two giant pandas arrived in Atlanta on Sunday morning as part of an agreement between the Chinese and American governments. Ping Ping and Fu Shuang departed Chengdu in southwestern China early Sunday aboard a dedicated “FedEx Panda Express” Boeing 777 aircraft, officials said.
· Xi comes bearing gifts: 2 giant pandas and 100,000 student visas from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Xi announces new pandas coming to Atlanta in coming days from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Xi gifts giant pandas to U.S., continuing years of "panda diplomacy" from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Former U.S. ambassador to China says he fears Trump may be taking soft approach with Xi Jinping from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.