Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings has agreed to pay over $26 million to settle charges that it bribed Chinese officials to get advertising contracts, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Thursday. The U.S.-based company was accused of violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) through the actions of its agency, Clear Media Limited, which at the time was a majority-owned subsidiary in China. The SEC said Clear Media allegedly bribed Chinese officials from 2012 through 2017 to obtain contracts for selling advertising services to companies for display on public bus shelters and other outdoor displays. Charles Cain, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA unit, said that Clear Media bribed Chinese officials with expensive gifts and entertainment and used off-book consultants to obtain contracts from Chinese authorities....Read more https://www.theepochtimes.com/business/clear-channel-outdoor-to-pay-26-million-to-settle-china-bribery-charges-5501366
The Chinese government in Beijing does not get to decide whether Australian members of parliament can visit Taiwan or not, Australia’s former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned. The comments come on the heels of a warning from China’s ambassador to several members of parliament that visited Taiwan on a bipartisan trip to promote cooperation between the countries this week. A bipartisan Australian delegation of MPs visits Taiwan to bolster an economic partnership on Sept. 26, 2023. (Office of the President, Taiwan.) Ambassador Xiao Qian said the visit promotes “separatism” in Taiwan, also warning that the move could undermine Australia-China relations.... 
Chinese top virologist Shi Zhengli, also known as “Batwoman” for her work on bat coronavirus research, warned that a future outbreak of coronavirus is “highly likely” in her recently published research article. Ms. Shi is the director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Research Center at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Her team has been conducting risky viral research on bat coronaviruses and cross-species infections, as well as gain of function research for years. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been widely suspected of having a virus lab leak accident, which caused the first COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019 and led to the global pandemic....
In a recent turn of events, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has proposed a state visit to South Korea, signaling a new chapter in strategic relations between the two nations. This gesture is seen as part of a larger initiative to foster peace on the Korean Peninsula. Experts are of the view that Mr. Xi’s overture comes as a countermeasure to the burgeoning alliance between North Korea and Russia—an alliance that could disrupt China’s longstanding influence over the region. South Korea remains the sole power capable of militarily countering North Korea, making it a significant variable in China’s calculations. Moreover, Mr. Xi aims to dismantle the existing trilateral alliance between the United States, Japan, and South Korea, particularly in light of South Korea’s current administration led by President Yoon Suk Yeol, which has adopted an anti-communist stance....