| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1964, a jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, and he was sentenced to death. Ruby successfully appealed for a new trial, but died before it could start. | | |  | The big idea | | National security adviser Sullivan warns of potential 'consequences' for Beijing |  Members of the Chinese diplomatic delegation at the Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria hotel in Rome on Monday where White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan was meeting with senior Chinese Communist Party diplomat Yang Jiechi. (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images) | | | The United States sent two significant public messages to China Sunday about Ukraine. First: We know Russia has asked you for weapons since it invaded its smaller neighbor nearly three weeks ago. Second: Don't even think about it. The two communications came as President Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, led a delegation of State Department and National Security Council officials to Rome today for talks with Yang Jiechi, China's top foreign policy official. | - "We are communicating directly, privately to Beijing that there will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them," Sullivan told CNN. "We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world."
| | Sullivan was equally blunt on NBC, saying the United States had made clear to China "that if they think that they can basically bail Russia out, they can give Russia a workaround to the sanctions that we've imposed, they should have another thing coming because we will ensure that neither China nor anyone else can compensate Russia for these losses." "In terms of the specific means of doing that, again, I'm not going to lay all of that out in public, but we will communicate that privately to China as we have already done and will continue to do," he said. Beijing called the reported aid request "fake news" spread with "sinister intentions," setting up a behind-the-scenes clash when Sullivan and his team meet with their Chinese counterparts in Rome, the latest difficult Sino-U.S. dialogue of the Biden era. | | | | | | | | Altria's companies are responsibly leading the transition of adult smokers to a smoke-free future – by developing and investing in potentially reduced harm alternatives. | | | |  | | | | | One of the most serious geopolitical questions raised by Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is how it will affect relations between Moscow and Beijing, which until recently had never been better. Just before the invasion, they had celebrated an alliance with "no limits." The revelation that Moscow has privately asked Beijing for help came in a spate of reports in news outlets including the Financial Times, The Washington Post and the New York Times, within minutes of each other, all sourced to anonymous U.S. officials. My colleagues Ellen Nakashima, Karen DeYoung and Cate Caddell noted: "The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, did not describe what kind of weaponry had been requested, or whether they know how China responded." "[T]he officials said that Russia is running low on certain types of weapons. They declined to specify which kinds," my colleagues reported. At the New York Times, Edward Wong and Julian E. Barnes said the officials did not spell those out because they were "determined to keep secret their means of collecting the intelligence on Russia's requests." At the Financial Times, Demetri Sevastopulo reported: "Another person familiar with the situation said the US was preparing to warn allies about the situation amid some indications that China may be preparing to help Russia. Other US officials have also said there were signs that Russia was running out of some kinds of weaponry as the war in Ukraine approaches the start of its third week." | | The multiple reports fit neatly into one of the ways the United States has waged the information war over Ukraine, partly declassifying American intelligence to an unusual degree and telling Moscow, in effect, "we know what you're doing." China has refused to join the United States and its allies in condemning the invasion or imposing economic sanctions on Russia. But it has also declined to use its U.N. Security Council veto to block measures critical of Moscow, choosing to abstain on several highly symbolic votes. | - "It continues to be the case that they are getting closer together" even after the invasion, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. "We see that across a range of sectors — economic, political, security — and expect it to continue. I think there's a limit to which it will go, but nevertheless that remains a concern."
| | Chinese leader Xi Jinping is worried about "the economic consequences, at a time when, you know, growth rates in China … are lower than they've been in 30 years," as well as the "reputational damage" Beijing is taking for lining up largely with Russia, said CIA Director William J. Burns said. Whatever the outcome, the apparent request speaks volume about Russia, according to Dan Drezner, a professor of international politics at Tufts University's Fletcher School: | | |  | What's happening now | | Zelensky to address U.S. Congress on Wednesday | | Forty-nine Republican Senators warned the White House today that any new Iran nuclear deal "will not survive" without GOP support. "Republicans have made it clear: We would be willing and eager to support an Iran policy that completely blocks Iran's path to a nuclear weapons capability, constrains Iran's ballistic missile program, and confronts Iran's support for terrorism," they said in a statement. "But if the administration agrees to a deal that fails to achieve these objectives or makes achieving them more difficult, Republicans will do everything in our power to reverse it. Unless Iran ceases its support for terrorism, we will oppose removing and seek to reimpose any terrorism-related sanctions. And we will force the Senate to vote on any Administration effort to do so." | China battles multiple covid outbreaks, locking down cities and provinces | | "China banned most people from leaving [Jilin,] a coronavirus-hit northeastern province, and mobilized military reservists Monday," the Associated Press's Huizhong Wu reports. The cases: "The National Health Commission reported 1,337 locally transmitted cases in the latest 24-hour period, including 895 in the industrial province of Jilin." The context: "Officials on Sunday locked down the southern city of Shenzhen, which has 17.5 million people and is a major tech and finance hub that borders Hong Kong. That followed the lockdown of Changchun, home to 9 million people in Jilin province, starting last Friday." Further reading: China's covid lockdowns could threaten half of the economy, Bloomberg reports | Congress asks for examination of drug companies trying to turn opioid settlements into tax breaks | | "The four firms are seeking tax breaks that would help offset the cost of a $26 billion legal settlement finalized last month, to bring funds to communities hurt by the opioid epidemic," Douglas MacMillan reports. The firms in question: Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health | | |  | Lunchtime reads from The Post | | This Georgia elections office was targeted for takeover. Here's what happened. |  Vanessa Waddell, the interim election supervisor in Floyd County, Ga., cradles a Georgia Election Code book after the end of a Floyd County Board of Elections meeting in Rome, Ga., on Jan. 18. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) | | | Places that have often been forgotten except for on voting days "are now being targeted for takeover by a Republican Party in thrall to false claims that the 2020 presidential race was stolen," Stephanie McCrummen reports. A glimpse from an interim election supervisor in Rome, Ga.: "Vanessa Waddell raised her cellphone and began recording. She zoomed in on the county commissioners who were about to name a new election board, sweeping away a system based on civic-minded volunteers and mutual trust and replacing it with one controlled by people claiming that fraud had corrupted the 2020 presidential election. "She panned around the room and here were the people who'd been pushing to oust the old system, believing that the corruption had seeped all the way down to their very own election office, casting Waddell as a pawn in a conspiracy stretching to China." | Israel is trying to keep out Russian oligarchs fleeing sanctions — but it's already too late | | Israel says it is working to prevent Moscow's oligarchs, some of whom also hold Israeli passports, from showing up and turning the country into a haven for sanctions evasion, Shira Rubin reports. "Israel's Channel 12 News reported last week that the government plans to limit the amount of time private planes and yachts are allowed to stay at Israeli airports and docks to just 48 hours. The move comes as a flurry of rented private jets departing Russian cities and bound for Tel Aviv raised speculation that Moscow's well-heeled elite are fleeing for Mediterranean shores." | Russian prosecutors threaten Western companies with arrests, asset seizures |  Men walk in front of the McDonald's flagship restaurant at Pushkinskaya Square — the first one of the chain opened in the U.S.S.R. on Jan. 31, 1990 — in central Moscow on March 13, McDonald's last day in Russia. (AFP) | | | "Russian prosecutors have issued warnings to Western companies in Russia, threatening to arrest corporate leaders there who criticize the government or to seize assets of companies that withdraw from the country," the Wall Street Journal's Jennifer Maloney, Emily Glazer and Heather Haddon report. Companies that received the warnings include: Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Proctor & Gamble, International Business Machines and Yum Brands. | U.S. intelligence officials say Putin is angry, frustrated, likely to escalate war | | Last week, intelligence officials testified before Congress about what they think Putin might do. "And those concerns increasingly shape discussions about what U.S. policymakers are willing to do for Ukraine," the AP's Nomaan Merchant reports. Why mindset matters: "Putin's mindset — as tough as it is to determine from afar — is critical for the West to understand as it provides more military aid to Ukraine and also prevent Putin from directly taking on NATO countries or possibly reaching for the nuclear button." | | |  | The Biden agenda | | Biden administration fights to uphold some Trump-era immigration policies |  Biden arrives aboard Air Force One at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Penn., on Friday. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst) | | | A contradiction?: The president's public line on immigration seems to conflict with what his attorneys have been arguing for in the courtroom, the New York Times's Zolan Kanno-Youngs reports. In January, government lawyers urged the court to let the Biden administration enforce a restriction imposed by former president Donald Trump that allowed migrants to be quickly turned away at the border. Judge Justin R. Walker, an appointee of Mr. Trump, was confused. "What are we to make of this?" he asked. "The answer is found in the collision of Mr. Biden's fervent campaign trail promises to undo Mr. Trump's harsh immigration policies and the grim reality of trying to manage a surge of migrant crossings amid criticism from Republicans that the president is weak on border security." More reading on immigration: Ukrainian refugees are hitting a wall at the US-Mexico border, Vice News reports | Biden administration: Pay construction workers more | | "The Biden administration is proposing changes designed to push up wages for workers at federally-funded construction projects such as interstates," the WSJ's David Harrison reports. The details: "The proposal would rewrite the rules around the Davis-Bacon Act, a 90-year-old law that applies to government contractors, in an attempt to better account for the increased earnings of construction workers over time, officials said." | Biden to attend first in-person fundraiser as president | | President Biden will attend a small, high-dollar fundraiser Monday night to support the Democratic Party, Tyler Pager and Michael Scherer report. The event has already raised more than $3 million for the DNC. | | |  | Javelin antitank missiles, visualized | | | |  | Hot on the left | | Leaked Kremlin memo to Russian media: Featuring Tucker Carlson is "essential" | | Mother Jones's David Corn obtained a memo that the Kremlin sent to state-friendly media outlets on March 3. It had an interesting request: Use more Tucker Carlson. Here's an excerpt: "'It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally,' advises the 12-page document written in Russian." | | |  | Hot on the right | | Whose side is Roger Stone on in the Gaetz sex crimes investigation? Everyone's, apparently. |  Roger Stone, former adviser to Donald Trump's presidential campaign, arrives to a Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol deposition. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg News) | | | Long before the public knew about the federal sex crimes investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, Roger Stone—was already in deep," the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger reports. "Stone has long been close not only with Gaetz, but also with Joel Greenberg, the congressman's former best friend and 'wingman,' who last year pleaded guilty to sex trafficking the same minor at the center of the Gaetz investigation." "But Stone also has unreported ties to a third Florida man in the saga. And, what's more, he lobbied for pardons for all three men." | | |  | Today in Washington | | | At 2:10 p.m., Biden will address the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference at the Marriott Marquis. The president will appear at a DNC fundraiser at 7:45 p.m. | | |  | In closing | | | Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. | | |
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