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.
Page A7From§Eachthe wee small hours edition — 28 September 2026
U.S. denies arming China, takes two pandas instead.
As it ran on the front
On September 18, three senators — Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders — introduced a bill to block a $5 billion U.S. weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. That is the ordinary machinery for stopping an arms deal a lawmaker distrusts: a bill, a sponsor, a name attached to it.
Four days later, on September 22, the president disclosed 1,156 stock trades from July, a reshuffling of his personal portfolio worth between $79 million and $270 million that touched, among other sectors, weapons-makers.…
…(cont) By Sunday, September 27, the threads met. Ambassador Perdue told Fox News Sunday that during those same meetings the president had asked Xi whether China wanted to buy American weapons — "Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world," Perdue quoted him saying. The New York Times carried the ambassador's account that day. That is a statement about plans, not a statement that the offer was never made.
That same Sunday morning, before the ambassador's account or the denial had finished moving on the wires, a Boeing 777 painted "FedEx Panda Express" landed in Atlanta. Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, the pandas Xi had announced three days earlier, were aboard, under a new agreement between Zoo Atlanta and the Chinese government. They cleared customs on schedule. On Monday, September 28, The Hill printed the ambassador's quote in full.
Line the beats up in the order they happened, not the order they got denied. A senator files a bill to stop one arms sale. A president's disclosure forms show trading in the sector that would fill another. The country he is said to have offered weapons to sends animals and a visa promise instead, and the man who used to hold the ambassador's job says out loud that he's worried about the softness. The denial covers the offer to sell weapons. Nothing covers the gift of pandas — it already landed, on schedule, the same week the offer surfaced.
“You file a bill to stop one country from getting American weapons and the same week your own ambassador says the boss offered them to a different country for free, on Fox News, like he was upselling a car. Nobody's counting that money because there isn't any yet — an offer doesn't show up on a disclosure form, only the stock does. The pandas cleared customs on schedule; the weapons offer just sits there, denied by a press release and confirmed by nothing but the man who was in the room.”
“Look, there's no contract, there's no sale, there's no paperwork — the ambassador described a conversation, not a deal, and conversations aren't policy. The president talks to a lot of world leaders about a lot of things, that's called diplomacy. Did I just call an on-the-record account from our own ambassador a rumor? That's — that's not the line, forget I said that.”
Earlier in this story
- White House denies offering China weapons the same week two pandas clear U.S. customs. By Sal · the midnight edition, 28 September 2026
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,’”
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.
· 'It Should Be Illegal': Trump's 1,156 July Stock Trades Involved AI, Big Oil, Weapons-Makers, and More from the morgue, 22 Sep 2026
· Markey, Merkley, and Sanders Lead Charge Against Trump's $5 Billion Saudi Weapons Deal from the morgue, 18 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
· Xi comes bearing gifts: 2 giant pandas and 100,000 student visas 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.