🇨🇳❌🇹🇼🇺🇸 — 📰 NBC News: Xi warned Biden during summit that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with China

➡️ Chinese President Xi Jinping bluntly told President Joe Biden during their recent summit in San Francisco that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided, according to three current and former U.S. officials.

➡️ Xi told Biden in a group meeting attended by a dozen American and Chinese officials that China’s preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force, the officials said.

➡️ The Chinese leader also referenced public predictions by U.S. military leaders who say that Xi plans to take Taiwan in 2025 or 2027, telling Biden that they were wrong because he has not set a time frame, according to the two current and one former official briefed on the meeting.

➡️ Chinese officials also asked in advance of the summit that Biden make a public statement after the meeting saying that the United States supports China’s goal of peaceful unification with Taiwan and does not support Taiwanese independence, they said. The White House rejected the Chinese request.

Link
https://archive.is/JPmd6

🇨🇳❌🇹🇼 — 📰 Global Times News: China urges the US to implement US leader's promise of not supporting "Taiwan independence," stop playing with the Taiwan question and not harm peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in response to US' fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act that hypes US military support for the island of Taiwan.

🔗 Global Times (@globaltimesnews)

🇷🇺💸💸 Vladimir Putin's Signature Brings Digital Ruble Into Russia's Tax Code.

The tax code now contains a definition of "digital ruble account" and has rules for the taxation of transactions with digital rubles.

Russia has been pushing forward with its digital ruble, in part as a means to circumvent financial restrictions in the form of sanctions imposed on it for its actions against Ukraine. Putin signed the digital ruble bill into law in July. The Bank of Russia has been working on the Digital ruble as a central bank digital currency project since 2020.

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/12/21/vladimir-putins-signature-brings-digital-ruble-into-russias-tax-code/

🇨🇷⚠️ — Paradise at Risk: Costa Rica, historically considered one of the safest countries in Central America, has seen this scenario change with the increased activity of criminal groups in its territory, mainly associated with drug trafficking.

📈 According to official data, the country has reached record levels of violence this year as the government implements new actions to address the growing security threats.

➡️ The country has already surpassed the record number of homicides recorded last year, according to government statistics: 630 were recorded by the end of September, two more than the total record of 628 in 2022.

❌ The international NGO denouncing organized crime in Latin America, InSight Crime, excluded cases of euthanasia and professional negligence from the information, which were previously added to the official homicide count.

⚠️ According to InSight Crime, the main drivers of the increase in violence in the country are drug trafficking and organized crime, which have driven the record homicide rate as criminal groups vie for territories for drug sale and transportation in the region.

☄️ Costa Rica has become a 'springboard' for Colombian cocaine bound for the United States and Europe. Official data estimate that seizures increased by 56% in 2020 and remained high in the following years.

🇪🇨 A similar phenomenon to Costa Rica occurred in Ecuador in recent years, another country considered peaceful that has been dominated by the influence of drug cartels and now faces a security battle marked by violence, murders, and the devastating influence of organized crime.

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