Boeing (BA) has a huge order in from China worth $19 billion, the White House announced today. The order of 200 aircraft will be delivered over three years.

But shareholders didn't react to the news, and Boeing shares actually fell by 1%. That's because there actually aren't any new orders to announce.

All those planes have already been announced in the past four years, The Seattle Times reports. Boeing has already received nonrefundable deposits on them and booked them as firm orders.

So the impact on Boeing is minimal. The only newsworthy thing to come out of today is that the Chinese government gave final approval to the airlines that placed those plane orders. The government requires that all airline orders get the official green light.

Announcing the approval today is pure politics, "designed to make the Chinese government appear responsive to U.S. concerns about the balance of trade," writes reporter Dominic Gates. Boeing shares were down 1.2% to $71.57 in afternoon trading.