http://www.average-bear.com/firefly/img/AllianceFlag.jpg In the Firefly 'verse, the {{Alliance}} -- more accurately, the Anglo-Sino Alliance -- is an amalgam of the two societies that united to become the the single governmental superpower that survived the exodus from Earth: China and the U.S. (Presumably, the union of countries which are, today, most numerically significant and politically significant, respectively.)

http://www.average-bear.com/firefly/img/AllianceFlag.jpg In the Firefly 'verse, the {{Alliance}} -- more accurately, the Anglo-Sino Alliance -- is an amalgam of the two societies that united to become the the single governmental superpower that survived the exodus from Earth: China and the U.S. (Presumably, the union of countries which are, today, most politically significant and numerically significant, respectively.)