Beginning this past weekend, the Chinese Communist Party used its security forces to launch a series of violent crackdowns on demonstrators who took to the streets in the largest protests the People’s Republic of China has seen since those in Tiananmen Square more than three decades ago. These protests emerged from the public outcry against the PRC’s use of draconian lockdowns, and came to a head after COVID protocols delayed firefighters in the city of Urumqi, potentially leading to multiple deaths in a fire. This tragedy, and the Chinese Communist Party’s response to it, are the result of failed government that prioritizes mass lockdowns over a safe and methodical re-opening of society with the help of vaccines and other effective public health measures. As I warned earlier this week, if the Chinese Communist Party and its security forces do no deescalate these violent crackdowns on protesters, they will face severe consequences from the international community.
Additionally, we learned earlier this week that the PRC’s People’s Liberation Army secretly constructed new military facilities in the Himalayas, near its border with India. This aggressive military expansion is another disturbing sign of Beijing’s growing regional aggression, mirroring the threats to Taiwan that led to several diplomatic trips there over the summer. Because of the Chinese Communist Party’s belligerent ambitions, it is imperative that the United States maintains and expands our security and intelligence cooperation with allies and partners in the region, including India, Japan, Australia, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan to send a clear message that the United States stands with democracies across the region in the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s growing aggression.
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Congressman Krishnamoorthi speaking in support of strengthening U.S. defense partnerships in the Pacific region following diplomatic meetings in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
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Two weeks ago, FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), a prominent cryptocurrency exchange, announced the company was filing for bankruptcy while facing a $9 billion shortfall of investor funds as Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s founder, and more than 130 associated companies, including the hedge fund Alameda Research, faced a range of fraud and misappropriation allegations. In light of this collapse that led to financial harm for many American consumers and investors, and exposed gaps in the current safeguards for cryptocurrency, I recently opened an investigation into the FTX collapse in my capacity as Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on economic and consumer policy. Fundamentally, we need to uncover the nature of any fraud or misconduct that took place at FTX and associated companies in order to prevent American consumers and investors from being misled again. You can read my letter to the leaders of FTX here.
This new investigation into FTX follows the broader inquiry I launched in August into fraud, scams, and consumer protection in the cryptocurrency industry. In that initial investigation, I sent letters to four federal agencies – the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Federal Trade Commission – requesting information about the steps they are each taking to combat cryptocurrency-related fraud and scams, and what additional actions may be necessary to protect Americans. I also sent requests for information to the five digital asset exchanges: Binance.U.S., Coinbase, Kraken, and KuCoin, and the now-bankrupt FTX. Even before this recent collapse and the decline in value of many other cryptocurrencies, there were already clear risks to consumers. The massive losses resulting from the actions of FTX and its partners only reaffirm the need for additional oversight.
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This week, the U.S. Senate made history when it passed the Respect for Marriage Act, a law that will codify the rights of marriage equality and interracial marriage into federal law. While both rights had already been affirmed by the Supreme Court through the landmark decisions of Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) and Loving v. Virginia (1967), the current Supreme Court’s radical departure from precedent in overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey has raised alarms about what this could mean for the constitutional rights to same-sex marriage and interracial marriage in the future. With some state legislatures already moving to strip women of their reproductive freedom in the wake of the Supreme Court by overturning settled precedent, many Americans now fear that their marriages may lose their constitutional protections because of their race or gender. As a Vice Chair of the House LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, I’m glad to see the Senate pass this bill, and look forward to voting for it in the House when the bill comes to the House floor in the coming days.
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The best way to stay up to date on these issues beyond our newsletter is through my social media accounts, which I update multiple times each day. You can follow my Twitter here, my Facebook page here, and my Instagram here. Thank you for staying engaged in our community.
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P.S. I always enjoy hearing from constituents, so feel free to comment and share my social media posts! Here are the links: Twitter here, Facebook page here, and Instagram here. |
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