| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1782, the Continental Congress officially adopted the Great Seal of the United States, featuring the emblem of the bald eagle. | | |  | The big idea | | Four takeaways from Blinken's 'meh' trip to China |  Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on June 19. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP, File) | | | "Important." "Robust." "Very candid, very in-depth, and in places constructive." That's how Secretary of State Antony Blinken described his face-to-face talks with senior Chinese officials as he wrapped up the first visit to Beijing by the top U.S. diplomat since 2018. He did not use the word "breakthrough," and there did not appear to be any of those on major issues — unless you count the Chinese willingness to talk, and keep talking. That this would count as one of the trip's successes shows how fraught Sino-American relations have become. Here are four takeaways from Blinken's brief visit, which included a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. | A wrongheaded freakout over Taiwan | | | | | | | | JPMorgan Chase is helping small businesses bring their passions to local communities. Flavorture brings healthy food options to DC and beyond.
Learn more | | | |  | | | | | But Blinken was restating long-standing American policy under presidents of both parties. No administration has endorsed Taiwan declaring independence. Here are his fuller remarks: | - "We do not support Taiwan independence. We remain opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We continue to expect the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences. We remain committed to meeting our responsibilities under the Taiwan Relations Act, including making sure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself."
| | The important sentence for today is the second one. The United States wants to enshrine the status quo — no invasion by Beijing, no formal declaration of independence in Taipei, which might trigger a military response from the mainland. The net effect of that position is … Taiwan remains a democratically self-governed island, de facto independent. Some of the confusion may have stemmed from Biden breaking with traditional U.S. rhetoric by saying not once, not twice, not three times, but four times since Summer 2021 that he would come to Taiwan's defense militarily if Beijing attacked. Which may have sounded to some like a promise to support Taiwan's independence. | China doesn't seem to care much about American fentanyl fears | | America has a fentanyl crisis — overdoses from the synthetic opioid are the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 49. U.S. officials agree the bulk of fentanyl in the United States is produced in Mexico, but with precursor chemicals originating in China. Democrats and Republicans alike have been sounding the alarm, and getting Beijing to help stem the flow of ingredients for the deadly drug was high on Blinken's agenda. Going by his own remarks, he didn't get much. "We agreed to explore setting up a working group or joint effort so that we can shut off the flow of precursor chemicals," Blinken said. So China is considering the creation of a working group to discuss how to … you can see how this is going. | Talking about continuing to talk | | "China has not agreed to move forward with that. It's an issue we have to keep working on," he said at his news conference. "For weeks leading up to the visit, U.S. officials emphasized the importance of such communication links to prevent accidents from turning into a military confrontation — particularly recent close calls between planes and ships in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait," John and Meaghan reported. Still, my colleagues wrote, Blinken's trip is "likely to pave the way for follow-on visits to China by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen — a visit sought by Beijing, which is hoping to boost investment amid an economic downturn — and potentially Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and climate envoy John F. Kerry." And "President Biden on Saturday said he hoped to meet Xi in coming months to discuss the issues that divide the two." So maybe November's APEC summit in San Francisco? | Not sure what to make of this | | Here's what Biden said Saturday about the Chinese spy balloon that flew over sensitive American sites in February, prompting Blinken to postpone his planned visit to Beijing, before the United States shot it down. "I think one of the things that that balloon caused was not so much that it got shot down, but I don't think the leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on," Biden said. "I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional." | - OK, I can hear you say, that's just a Bidenism. In a system like China's, how could Xi's government not know what the People's Liberation Army or intelligence was doing? Especially something this likely to hurt Sino-U.S. relations.
| | Except China has presented two sides to Biden: Welcoming diplomatic outreach while heightening military tensions. And one Western official told the Daily 202: "We shouldn't always assume the PLA works in concert with the political leadership." Every autocratic regime has hard-liners and very-hard-liners. It doesn't look from here like there's a meaningful schism. But this bears watching. | | |  | Politics-but-not | | | Click through to submit ideas for potential inclusion in our weekly roundup of stories you might not find in other political newsletters. Read more » | | | | | |  | What's happening now | | Hunter Biden reaches deal to plead guilty in tax, gun case |  President Biden embraces first lady Jill Biden, his son Hunter and daughter Ashley, after being sworn in during his inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) | | - "Any proposed plea deal would have to be approved by a federal judge. Both the prosecutors and the defense counsel have requested a court hearing at which Hunter Biden, 53, can enter his plea."
| U.S. and Iran in indirect talks over nuclear program and prisoners | | "The Biden administration is conducting indirect bilateral talks with Iran that it hopes, at a minimum, will curtail Tehran's nuclear program short of weapons development, end its proxy attacks on U.S. forces in Syria and bring home three longtime American prisoners in exchange for limited access to some of Iran's billions of dollars frozen overseas," Karen DeYoung, Joby Warrick and Steve Hendrix report. | Search for submersible missing near Titanic wreck hits critical stage | | "As the search for the submersible vessel that vanished while exploring the wreckage of the Titanic enters its third day, rescuers and officials are concerned about the dwindling supply of emergency oxygen that will soon run out for the five people trapped onboard the vessel in the North Atlantic," Timothy Bella and Maham Javaid report. | | |  | Lunchtime reads from The Post | | FBI resisted opening probe into Trump's role in Jan. 6 for more than a year |  (Illustration by Elena Lacy/The Washington Post; Photos by Bonnie Jo Mount, Jabin Botsford and Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) | | | "A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation," Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis report. | Who is David Weiss, lead prosecutor in the Hunter Biden case? | | "The Biden administration asked nearly all Trump's U.S. attorneys to step down, which is typical for new presidents when they take office. But the administration asked Weiss, who was already heading the Hunter Biden investigation, to stay on. Removing Weiss likely would have sparked political backlash since he was investigating the president's son," Perry Stein reports. | How government rules for classified papers could help Trump delay his trial | | "Trump's indictment on dozens of charges, including mishandling classified documents and trying to obstruct investigators' efforts to recover that material, means his case will be tried under the rules of the Classified Information Procedures Act, or CIPA — a law that could, in theory, delay any trial until after the 2024 presidential election," Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein report. | Trump real estate deal in Oman underscores ethics concerns |  Former President Donald Trump disembarks his airplane, known as "Trump Force One," on June 10. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | "Mr. Trump has been selling his name to global real estate developers for more than a decade. But the Oman deal has taken his financial stake in one of the world's most strategically important and volatile regions to a new level, underscoring how his business and his politics intersect as he runs for president again amid intensifying legal and ethical troubles," the New York Times's Eric Lipton reports. | U.S. becomes transgender-care outlier as more in Europe urge caution | - "The European medical community, by contrast, is expressing doubts about that approach. Having allowed these treatments for years, five countries—the U.K., Sweden, Finland, Norway and France—now urge caution in their use for minors, stressing a lack of evidence that the benefits outweigh the risks."
| | |  | The Biden agenda | | As Modi visits White House, India's reliance on Russian arms constrains him |  Eva Longoria listens to President Biden along with First Lady Jill Biden prior to a screening of the move, "Flamin' Hot" on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) | | | "As President Biden welcomes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House this week, the BrahMos missile illustrates how India's long-standing reliance on Russia for military equipment and technology constrains New Delhi's ability to line up with the West in confronting Russia over its war in Ukraine. To Washington's disappointment, India has not condemned the invasion," Karishma Mehrotra reports. | Biden, in California, seeks to shore up support from environmentalists | | "Touring a coastal wetland here Monday, President Biden sought to tout his environmental record and offer assurances that bills he signed during the first two years of his presidency would help communities protect themselves from natural disasters for decades to come," Toluse Olorunnipa and Brady Dennis report. | | |  | Ketanji Brown Jackson's family tree, visualized | | | "Today, as new genealogical research illustrates, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Patrick Jackson are left with a historical subject in common: enslaved people. His ancestors owned them, while her ancestors were them," Sally H. Jacobs reports. | | |  | Hot on the left | | The conspiracy candidate: What RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine crusade could look like in the White House |  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrives with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, for a program on June 6, 2018, in Arlington, Va. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) | | | "Kennedy's views on vaccines put him at odds with most Americans, particularly Democrats. He aligns more with a growing wing of vaccine-skeptic Republicans; research and polling consistently shows modern-day conservatives are more susceptible to conspiracy theories and hold more conspiratorial worldviews generally," NBC News's Brandy Zadrozny reports. | - "Kennedy's supporters have gotten the message. In a Facebook group where more than 4,000 people have gathered to organize events like Kennedy-branded Fourth of July parades, members have been workshopping possible appositives for their candidate, settling most recently on 'Vaccine Safety Advocate.' But they'd really prefer to avoid the issue, as one poster put it, 'by sticking to Kennedy's campaign points as much as possible.'"
| | |  | Hot on the right | | Bill Barr: The truth about the Trump indictment |  Attorney General William P. Barr arrives with President Trump to speak with members of the coronavirus task force during a briefing in response to the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic on, April 1, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | "Trump has been the victim of witch hunts by obsessive enemies willing to do anything to bring him down. On those occasions—most prominently Russiagate, and more recently the civil and criminal actions against him in New York—I have never shied away from defending him. As his attorney general, I witnessed firsthand the unfair and venomous treatment he, and those in his administration, often received," former attorney general William P. Barr writes in the Free Press. | - "It is also true, as I know well, that Trump is a deeply flawed, incorrigible man who frequently brings calamity on himself and the country through his dishonesty and self-destructive recklessness. Even his supporters, who can't help but acknowledge that he is own worst enemy, know it. "
| | |  | Today in Washington | | | At 3 p.m., Biden will discuss his administration's "commitment to seizing the opportunities and managing the risks of Artificial Intelligence" in San Francisco. Biden will leave San Francisco for Larkspur, Calif., at 5:30 p.m. He will attend a fundraiser in nearby Kentfield, Calif., and leave Larksput at 8:35 p.m. At 10 p.m., Biden will speak at a fundraiser in San Francisco. | | |  | In closing | | The ex-president who went to court and became his own star witness |  President Trump speaks during a 2019 signing ceremony at the White House, in front of a painting of Theodore Roosevelt. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | - "Roosevelt lies and curses in a most disgusting way; he gets drunk, too, and that not infrequently, and all his intimates know it," read an October 1912 editorial in the Ishpeming (Mich.) Iron Ore, beneath the headline "The Roosevelt Way."
- "All who oppose him are wreckers of the country, liars, knaves, and undesirables," the Iron Ore said. "He alone is pure and entitled to a halo. Rats. For so great a fighter, self-styled, he is the poorest loser we ever knew!"
| | Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. | | |
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