Sponsored by Pennsylvania Republican Dan Meuser, requires the US Treasury to push Beijing for greater transparency in its exchange rates at the IMF.

The first two bills passed the Republican-controlled House by voice vote, and Meuser’s bill passed 379-1. Now the bills must pass the full Democratic-controlled Senate before heading to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

Wow 379-1. Thats why the two evils Xi & Putin able to unite both parties.

China's Zhongzhi Group officially exploded in November last year, admitting that it was insolvent of more than 220 billion yuan (about NT$960 billion), and then filed for bankruptcy liquidation on the grounds of obvious lack of solvency, which was accepted by the Beijing court today.

The WeChat public account of Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court reported on the evening of the 5th that the debtor Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., Ltd. applied to the court for bankruptcy liquidation on the grounds that it "cannot pay off its due debts, its assets are insufficient to pay off all its debts, and it obviously lacks solvency".

According to the report, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court found that the application met the bankruptcy reasons stipulated in Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of the People's Republic of China, so it ruled to accept the bankruptcy liquidation application of Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., Ltd. on January 5, 2024.

The US House of Representatives advanced three bipartisan finance bills concerning Taiwan and mainland China on Friday, bringing legislation meant to bolster American support for the self-ruled island closer to becoming law.
The first of the three, sponsored by California Republican Young Kim, supports including Taiwan as a member of the International Monetary Fund.

Kuomintang’s (KMT) presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih delivered a rousing speech, conceding defeat to and congratulating his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) opponent, William Lai Ching-te.

A candidate who respected the Constitution.

US House passes finance bills bolstering Taiwan, squeezing mainland China ahead of island’s presidential election
-One supports including Taipei in IMF while another directs regulators to exclude Beijing from banking organisations over threats to self-ruled island
-California Republican Young Kim says her bill meant to send Taiwanese “a strong message of solidarity and support for their democracy”

US officials have said that Washington will uphold its longstanding policy toward Taiwan no matter who takes on the top job. The Biden administration will dispatch an unofficial delegation – including former senior officials – to Taipei following the election in keeping with past practice, according to senior officials.

The delegation visit “will be a signal, a very symbolic way of supporting Taiwan,” said T.Y. Wang, a professor at Illinois State University.

The Rocket Force of the People's Republic of China was established on December 31, 2015, and is an important part of Xi Jinping's deepening reform of national defense and the armed forces.

In October 2022, the China Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CASI), a subsidiary of the U.S. Air Force University, released a 255-page "Report on China's Rocket Force", which contains detailed information, including the organizational composition of the Rocket Force, the identity of commanders and senior leaders, the location and coordinates of troops at all levels, and the types of missiles deployed. Former Navy Lieutenant Colonel Yao Cheng believes that this level of intelligence cannot be obtained from lower-level cadres, so this indicates that the leakage of military secrets occurred at the top of the Rocket Force. This may also be one of the reasons for investigating the Rocket Army.

On July 4, 2023, Wu Guohua, the former deputy commander of the Rocket Army, passed away, and the official obituary was released on July 25 saying that he had died of a cerebral hemorrhage, but his old boss Zhang Xiaoyang posted on social media that he had hanged himself at home, triggering speculation about the purge of the Rocket Army.

Speaking to the media ahead of his victory speech on Saturday night, Lai called his win a “victory for the community of democracies.”

“We are telling the international community that between democracy and authoritarianism, we still stand on the side of democracy,” he said.

“I will act in accordance with our democratic and free constitutional order in a manner that is balanced and maintains the cross-strait status quo,” he added. “At the same time, we are also determined to safeguard Taiwan from continuing threats and intimidation from China”.

The DPP emphasizes that Taiwan is not subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party, and that its future Taiwan must only be decided by its 23.5 million people.

Other world powers have congratulated Lai, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying the vote demonstrated “the strength of Taiwan’s robust democratic system and electoral process.”

The result shows voters backing the DPP’s view that Taiwan is a de facto sovereign nation that should bolster defenses against China’s threats and deepen relations with fellow democratic countries, even if that means economic punishment or military intimidation by Beijing.

Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party pulled off a historic third consecutive presidential victory on Saturday as voters shrugged off warnings by China that their re-election would increase the risk of conflict.Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s current vice president, declared victory on Saturday evening while his two opposition rivals both conceded defeat.

“This is a night that belongs to Taiwan. We managed to keep Taiwan on the map of the world,” Lai told thousands of jubilant supporters at a rally after his win.

China's aircraft carrier manufacturer broke a corruption scandal, and the general manager was dismissed
Sun Bo, general manager of the state-owned enterprise "China Shipbuilding Heavy Industry", which is responsible for building the aircraft carrier, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and is under investigation. "China Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd." was responsible for the transformation of the "Liaoning" aircraft carrier and the design and construction of China's first domestically produced aircraft carrier.

The Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation was signed in Moscow on 16 July 2001 by Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee and President of China, and Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation.

The treaty was ratified by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on 27 October 2001. On December 26, 2001, January 16, and January 25, 2002, it was ratified by the State Duma, the Federal Council, and President Vladimir Putin in the Federal Assembly of Russia. On February 28, 2002, the two sides exchanged instruments of ratification in Beijing, and the treaty came into force. CCP giving away 4 millions square meter Chinese ancient lands to Russia.

The 2023 Chinese People's Liberation Army Rocket Force corruption case is a large-scale corruption case involving the Chinese People's Liberation Army Rocket Army, the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission and military industrial enterprises, and the first corruption case involving the highest levels of the military since Xi Jinping was re-elected as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The dismissal of a number of military leaders and officials since July 2023 may be related to the case, including State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu, Rocket Force Commander Li Yuchao, Rocket Force Political Commissar Xu Zhongbo, three representatives of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) of the Military Industry Department, and eight other PLA National People's Congress deputies.

The big sticks dismissed.

In his victory speech, Lai said Taiwan is willing to talk to China "on the basis of dignity and parity," but he also said his administration will be "determined" to safeguard Taiwan from threats and intimidation from China.

China responded to Lai's victory shortly after the speech. "Our stance on resolving the Taiwan question and realizing national reunification remains consistent, and our determination is as firm as rock," said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulated Lai on his election. He reiterated Washington's commitment "to maintaining cross-Strait peace and stability, and the peaceful resolution of differences, free from coercion and pressure."

"We've written a new page for Taiwan's history of democracy," Lai, long the frontrunner in the polls, told reporters after both his opponents conceded defeat.

Lai said he would maintain the status quo in relations across the Taiwan Strait, but that he was "determined to safeguard Taiwan from threats and intimidation from China".

At the same time, he emphasised the need for cooperation and dialogue with Beijing on an equal basis to "replace confrontation", though he didn't give specifics.

In the United States, a candidate can win the Presidential election with a plurality of votes in the Electoral College, which is the body that elects the President. The candidate who wins the most votes in a state usually wins all of that state’s electoral votes. The candidate who wins a majority of the electoral votes (at least 270 out of 538) becomes the President. US President does not need to win above 50% of the votes.

Taiwan's voters rebuff China and give ruling party third presidential term

aiwanese voters swept the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te into power on Saturday, strongly rejecting Chinese pressure to spurn him, as China said it would not give up on achieving "reunification".

Lai's party, which champions Taiwan's separate identity and rejects China's territorial claims, was seeking a third successive four year term, unprecedented under Taiwan's current electoral system.

Lai Ching-te of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is Taiwan's new president-elect, after a three-way election that will determine the self-ruled island's future stance towards China.

Since its founding in the 1980s as an alliance of underground dissident groups, the DPP has now secured a third term in the presidential office, a first in Taiwan's short democratic history.

China is suffering a double-whammy of weak demand at home and abroad.

That wasn’t the only gloomy data China released on Friday. The world’s second largest economy is struggling to stem deflationary pressures. Consumer price inflation in 2023 was the weakest it has been in 14 years.

The consumer price index for December improved slightly from November, but was down 0.3% on the same month in 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. For 2023 as a whole, prices were up by just 0.2% over 2022, the weakest reading since 2009, when CPI fell by 0.7% as a global recession hit.

China’s economy had a bad 2023 and the outlook isn’t much better.

Exports for the year as a whole fell for the first time since 2016 as global demand for Chinese-made goods slowed, according to customs data released on Friday. Officials said the slump will be difficult to shake off in 2024.

But for 2023, exports fell 4.6%, the first such annual drop since a 7.7% decline in 2016, according to Wind Information.

Imports dropped by 5.5% last year. Their last decline was in 2020, the year the Covid-19 pandemic began.

China’s trade with its major partners declined in 2023 as demand for Chinese goods fell amid slower global growth.

China’s annual exports drop for the first time in seven years

BEIJING — China’s annual exports fell for the first time in seven years in 2023, even as shipments in December beat expectations, customs data showed Friday.

Tally with the stock markets.Lol.

Japanese stocks surge past 34-year highs, set for stellar week
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was the best performer in Asia this week, rising 1.2% on Friday to a new 34-year high at nearly 35,500 points. With strong and solid economy support.

HK index back to 1997. 🤣🤣

Nikkei 225 extends rally, at 34-year high
Japan’s Nikkei 225 remained an outperformer among its Asian peers, rising 2% on Thursday to a fresh 34-year high above 35,000 points. The index was boosted by broad-based gain