Yes, Prime Minister of Japan

When economic and political dependence becomes absolute, one can never truly stand tall. Examples include Nepal's dependence on India, and Japan's dependence on the United States in the past.

On the contrary, countries like Australia, which rely on their mines and ranches, enjoy relative economic independence. Without strong pressure, they tend to act arrogantly. However, deep down, they always want to piggyback on the reputation of the white world of Europe and America.

Li Xinghe twirled his fingers, his confident expression returning to his face:

“You’re right, I’m changing my approach, and I am indeed helping the United States.”

He announced:

“I want to reach another gentleman’s agreement with Vance. Alaska, like Australia, is a source of raw materials that we need for energy and mineral supplies. This is the end of our agreement. Alaska will not become independent, I will not interfere in the continental United States, I will restore his arms supply, and I will support his annexation of Canada and ground invasion of Mexico.”

Duchess Olympia was even more puzzled:

Is this really a gentleman's agreement?

Both the fake ice fairy and the water mirror balance whispered to Olympia:

"Don't believe it. He used the same phrase to deceive the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division, which was rebelling, two years ago. Since then, no Japanese army in Tokyo has been able to stop him, allowing him to smoothly clear away obstacles in Tokyo."

Li Xinghe's gentleman's agreement is tantamount to 'I want to trick you'.

Li Xinghe harbored a bellyful of evil intentions, preparing to continue to entrap the United States in an even deeper quagmire.

The fake ice queen, Xianzi, was the first wicked woman to realize that Li Xinghe was full of evil intentions. Knowing that her persuasion was successful, she smiled and asked:

"So what are you going to do now?"

Li Xinghe replied:

"We must continue to rectify the economy, adjust administrative divisions, and straighten out national order."

This micro-map has reduced the number of prefectures and counties by 47 and switched to a provincial-level administrative map.

But Shui Jing Tianping sighed and pointed to the calendar:

"Aren't you planning to celebrate the New Year?!"

In Japan, the Gregorian calendar year is celebrated, and New Year's Day is considered the new year.

Li Xinghe glanced at the calendar and was surprised to find that it was almost 2031.

……

Washington, D.C., USA.

Treasury Secretary and interim Federal Reserve Chairman Bessant, along with Commerce Secretary Rutnick, arrived at the White House exhausted.

"Your Excellency, we have decided to raise the dollar interest rate by 0.5% to curb the continued decline. We need to give the market some good news."

Vance's attendant emphasized:

"Call him Your Majesty."

The ministers had no choice but to say:

"Yes, Your Majesty."

To be honest, most officials in Washington felt that Vance was a reasonably normal president before he became emperor, but after becoming emperor he became more withdrawn and suspicious, and gradually became more abnormal.

The seeds of a certain imperial strategy were sprouting in Vance's heart.

"Can it really curb currency devaluation?"

"can."

A single piece of good news can make the dollar sound good.

Vance agreed.

As expected, after the news spread, the US dollar stopped its continuous decline and began to rise against the trend.

Vance slumped in his chair, drenched in sweat. After about a month of hard work, he had finally managed to barely manage to keep the economy afloat.

In order to preserve the dollar's exchange rate, which had suddenly begun to plummet, and to consolidate the massive short-term debt, which amounted to trillions of dollars every month, Vance worked tirelessly day and night, neglecting even his newlywed young wife. He immediately sent the Billy Graham family back to the South to engage in deeper cooperation with the evangelicals, and secured their continued support by forcibly issuing a nationwide ban on abortion.

Now, the United States has achieved the dream of evangelicals: a nationwide ban on abortion.

I can't even imagine how many deformed children will be born under the combined effects of banning abortion, excessive use of addictive drugs and drug abuse, lead pipes, and pesticide-laden food.

"Finally... we've finally stabilized..."

At this point, in less than a month, by the end of 2030, the dollar had crashed and depreciated by 56%, far exceeding the 20%-30% that Vance and his team had predicted at the time.

But the devaluation was still too severe.

Rutnick whispered:

"At this point, the exchange rate between the US dollar and the RMB had reached 1:2.5. If priced in US dollars, China would now be the world's largest economy. The United States would be second, Russia third, Japan fourth, and India fifth."

Vance suddenly asked:

"What if it's priced in RMB?"

Rutnick was speechless.

Brother, do you think there's a black hole in the exchange rate between the RMB and the USD where the USD depreciates but the RMB doesn't appreciate? Of course, that's also because China is the world's largest economy.

In reality, China hasn't done much in recent years; it has simply focused on technological breakthroughs and achieved rapid growth. The only issue is the excessive issuance of US dollars, which has led to the collective devaluation of US currencies. Prior to this, the US GDP had already been inflated by trillions of dollars after the pandemic. This demonstrates the gradual flaws in the GDP calculation method under the influence of floating exchange rates and fiat currencies.

Vance immediately flew into a rage, jumped up, clutching his backside, and shouted:

"No! America must be number one in the world."

Even if it means starting the printing press, we will still inflate the US GDP in US dollars.

The United States' hard power lies in its military and economy, while its soft power lies in its propaganda and public opinion. The normative paradigms of modern society as a whole originate from the United States. However, soft power requires the support of hard power.

If the United States isn't number one, then it must be number one.

Otherwise, it would not be a city upon a hill, not a nation blessed by God with a manifest destiny, and it would be unable to maintain the American people's admiration for strength.

Although they claim not to mind, the US is clearly the original version of India. No matter the ranking, if it's something the media will sensationalize, the US will try to climb the ranks. First in doping at the Olympics, first in inflated GDP figures, first in education… recruiting Chinese students to top the list. Even negative rankings like world's largest intelligence agency, world's largest prison population, and world's largest number of drug users (already surpassed by India's 2 million drug addicts) are, in a sense, examples used by the US media to promote themselves. Basically, they're always number one.

In modern terms, America is the epitome of a workaholic. And not just any workaholic, but one who talks a righteous game while secretly taking drugs and cheating at night.

In terms of democracy, the United States lags behind Taiwan in the past; in terms of winning knowledge, it is weaker than India today.

However, militarily, even if the two were combined, they still couldn't defeat the United States, which shows that swords are still superior to books.

Just then, the Deputy Secretary of State rushed back and told Vance:

"Li Xinghe asked someone to convey to His Majesty that he wishes to reach a gentleman's cooperation agreement with you."

Vance snorted a few times.

Is this a convenient excuse to back down now that he has finally managed to stabilize the dollar's exchange rate?

His Majesty's pride made Vance unwilling to be on equal footing with that scoundrel Li Xinghe.

Vance insults Li Xinghe:

"He's a stray dog. Every time I show the slightest weakness, he pounces. When Tulsi defected, he supported American Samoa's independence. That wretched little island may not be important, but we can't let him run wild. The Pentagon told me it was a huge loss. And now he's teaming up with the Murkowski family, who oppose me, trying to create a third America in Alaska. This bastard's so-called gentleman's agreement must have some ulterior motive!"

The Deputy Secretary of State was the one who had negotiated with Japan, so he had a plan to deceive Vance and thus instigated him:

"Actually... even Japan can't hold on anymore. It's said that a super-large insurance company is on the verge of bankruptcy, and hundreds of companies and factories have already gone out of business. It is facing a wave of yen appreciation and corporate bankruptcies."

So you couldn't hold on any longer either.

Vance felt a surge of satisfaction.

After angrily cursing Li Xinghe with a hundred swear words and humiliating his ex-wife Wusha, Vance finally felt satisfied and began to consider Li Xinghe's proposal.

"But I do need to conquer Canada."

A month of economic recession, a sharp depreciation of the dollar, soaring prices, and news of losses that couldn't be hidden in the newspapers all gave Vance a headache.

Many fortified districts, operating outside government control, emerged across the United States, connecting to smuggling routes in the South and establishing a smuggling economic zone without clear leadership.

Fortunately, the US is inherently fragmented, so government intervention isn't a major problem.

Vance knew that only by winning, only by achieving victory, could he inspire his evangelical and Maga supporters, making them feel that despite America's economic woes, its world-leading military strength remained intact. This was a necessity for achieving a spiritual victory.

He should eat up Canada.

Economically speaking, as a vassal state of the United States, Canada is essentially integrated into the US economy. Acquiring Canada is like consuming a well-prepared dish; it won't cause any indigestion. Facing a severe economic recession, the US really needs a piece of Canada—a lucrative asset—to replenish its deficient resources and boost its plummeting GDP, achieving a win-win situation for both the economy and public sentiment.

Therefore, he is even more determined to devour Canada.

The most important aspect of this kind of victory is that it provides the world with an excuse to continue to proclaim America's overwhelming success.

The United States remains the world's most powerful nation. When it suffers even a minor setback, it can simply devour its long-prepared neighbors. Even if it were to reveal its most shameless imperialist face, it would already be so burdened by debt that it would have long since lost all sense of decency.

Therefore, we should eat up Canada.

As for the problems that such actions would lead to the collapse of America's traditional global image, alienation between the Americas and European countries, resistance from Canadian separatists to being annexed by the United States, the spread of economic setbacks to Canada, and a rapid increase in terrorists, Vance himself has neither the ability nor the energy to deal with them.

Winning now is the only real win.

He rose from the throne in the White House, turned to look at the faces of past presidents, many of whom he knew well, whose legacy was about to crumble. The just path of colonial liberation championed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the human rights-based diplomacy shaped by Kennedy and Carter—these were now utterly ruined.

The thought of attempting to annex Canada seemed to invite the President's merciless contempt, and Vance, feeling guilty, straightened his collar, deliberately adding to his defense:

"I am the first Emperor of America, His Majesty Vance."

After saying this, he felt extremely arrogant as he looked down at the portraits of presidents in front of him.

Then he sat down proudly and let his staff begin to speak.

"Now, let's start studying how to annex Canada."

We must win by the end of 2030!

Chapter 884: A Verbal Gentleman's Agreement, A Christmas Eve War of Annihilation (4200 words)

"Murder!"

Gunfire erupted from speeding cars through the streets of Washington.

As a country with fortified residential communities, the United States, this peculiar nation, does not solve its security problems simply because a city has a significant political status.

Conversely, the more important the city, the worse the security situation.

To make matters worse, Vance's amnesty policy threw two million gang members, unscrupulous lawyers, corrupt politicians, quack doctors, and sex offenders back into society. These individuals quickly transformed into active social forces and underground criminal organizations, forming criminal syndicates in major cities such as Washington, New York, and Philadelphia.

They're capable of anything; drug trafficking and murder are basic skills for them. Criminals traffic drugs and commit murder, unscrupulous lawyers help defend them, evil politicians and priests assist in bribing their way through political channels, and quack doctors can even assist in treatment or provide drug sources, thus opening up an entire criminal pipeline.

In those two months, the crime rate on the East Coast of the United States surged by 77%, and police departments were almost overwhelmed.

But His Majesty Vance naturally didn't care about any of this. He was now protected by 1500 soldiers near the White House, which was much safer than the situation during Obama's time when gangsters were shooting at the White House.

What he was really anxious about was:

"How can we quickly occupy Canada, acquire its wealth, and portray ourselves in the media as a loving and united America and Canada?"

Such remarks actually met with opposition from many cabinet members.

"I do not recommend this!"

"Something bad is going to happen!"

Commerce Secretary Rutnick and Treasury Secretary Bessenter have a strained relationship; in fact, one could argue that their battle over trade with China once misled Trump's political decisions.

That's right. These two shrewish guys fought over the authority to manage sanctions against China a couple of years ago, which misled Trump into making a mistake.

But today, they are all united against Vance.

Because accepting Canada would be a losing proposition.

Canada has already supplied its wealth to the United States and is bearing the governance costs itself.

Now is the last chance to reap the benefits from the dollar's interest rate hike cycle and take advantage of Canada and the UK. It's the perfect time to make more money, but Vance insists on annexing Canada, adding to his own financial burden. Is he crazy?

Logically, the US should not raise interest rates before it causes a global financial tsunami, as this would damage the liquidity of the US dollar and weaken the ability of dollars to flow out and exploit the world.

In a normal period of global dollar offensive, the strategy would be to use low-interest Japanese government bonds to exchange for large amounts of dollars, then launch a global offensive to buy up the assets of financially liberalized countries. Afterward, the dollar would be raised and appreciated, draining the global dollar supply, crippling these countries, and then reaping the second wave of profits.

This round trip is the tide of dollar harvesting.

However, Li Xinghe's constant manipulation of news detrimental to the US dollar, leading to its continued excessive depreciation, has already breached the bottom line of the financial groups' global exploitation of the dollar. If it falls any further, they'll lose everything, so the US must quickly raise interest rates to recover its exchange rate and make up for their losses.

Everyone's too busy looking for tax revenue and currency appreciation to play the Conqueror's game with Vance right now.

Vance did not take the cabinet's opposition seriously.

He immediately opened social media and started another propaganda campaign: