Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 665: A Brief Wednesday Night Update

War for Ukraine Day 665: A Brief Wednesday Night Update

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Screen shot of a mural of an eye shedding a tear/crying. The upper eyelid is painted in the blue of Ukraine's flag. The lower eyelid is painted in the yellow of Ukraine's flag. The mural was painted by the artist MyDogSighs.

(Image by My Dog Sighs)

I’m still fried, so we’re just going to cover the basics again tonight.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

We are working to increase the efficiency of drones in all areas – address by the President of Ukraine

20 December 2023 – 21:34

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

A brief report for this day.

Morning –  conference call. The military reported on the situation at the front. The law enforcers reported on the internal situation and security, the aftermath of the Russian shelling of Kherson – heavy shelling. We will retaliate against the enemy. The Main Intelligence Directorate reported on the occupiers’ plans and our counteraction. The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine reported on the near-term trends and important operations we are preparing. A separate discussion focused on drones – what’s in the warehouses and what’s needed at the front. Logistics will be expedited. We are also working to increase the efficiency of drones, including FPV, in all areas. This is an obvious priority of the state and a concrete way to protect the lives of our warriors.

There were a lot of meetings in the afternoon. The Prime Minister. The Minister of Defense. A very important issue is communication about the war, our defense, and the frontline in general. Access to the frontline for journalists. Changes have been prepared – there should be more information about the front. I am grateful to everyone who understands the importance of this and helps to keep our defense and our defense needs in the focus of the world’s attention. I also held a meeting with the Minister for Strategic Industries. He coordinates the work of the entire team dealing with the system of shelters and their readiness. Good results have been achieved in December.

Just now, I had an international conversation. I spoke with the Prime Minister of New Zealand. For us in Ukraine, for our international position, the voice of absolutely everyone in the world who values international law and is ready to defend it is important. I thanked New Zealand for its unwavering support for Ukraine, for assistance in demining, for supporting sanctions against Russia, and for its efforts to promote the Peace Formula. By the way, we are now actively working on organizing the next meeting in the format of advisors. Step by step, we are making our Peace Formula the Formula of the world majority. I am grateful to everyone who helps.

And, of course, every day, my unwavering gratitude goes to our warriors. To everyone who is fighting for our state. To those who are training. To those who are healing and saving lives. To those who are manufacturing the necessary weapons. And to all who are working so that Ukraine can withstand, so that our warriors have the means to defend our state and independence. We will certainly defend it!

Glory to Ukraine!

We need better members of Congress!

From the BBC:

A website founded by a former US Marine who now lives in Russia has fuelled a rumour that Volodymyr Zelensky purchased two luxury yachts with American aid money.

Despite the false claim, the disinformation plot was successful. It took off online and was echoed by members of the US Congress making crucial decisions about military spending.

It was an incredible assertion – using two advisers as proxies, Mr Zelensky paid $75m (£59m) for two yachts.

But not only has the Ukrainian government flatly denied the story, the two ships in question have not even been sold.

Despite being false, the story reached members of the US Congress, where leaders say any decision on further aid to Ukraine will be delayed until next year.

Some are vehemently opposed to further support.

On X, formerly Twitter, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said: “Anyone who votes to fund Ukraine is funding the most corrupt money scheme of any foreign war in our country’s history.”

She linked to a story containing the yacht rumour.

Tom Tillis, a Republican Senator and a supporter of military aid to Ukraine, spoke to CNN shortly after senators held a closed-door meeting with Mr Zelensky last week.

“I think the notion of corruption came up because some have said we can’t do it, because people will buy yachts with the money,” Mr Tillis said. “[Mr Zelensky] disabused people of those notions.”

Mr Tillis has butted heads with another Republican Senator, J D Vance, who has also mentioned Mr Zelensky and ships in the same breath.

While discussing budget priorities on a podcast hosted by former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Mr Vance said: “There are people who would cut Social Security, throw our grandparents into poverty, why? So that one of Zelensky’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht?”

Although the yacht rumour is false, the BBC has discovered the story was given a major boost by a Russia-linked website that pretends to be located in Washington.

It is, researchers say, a “likely purpose-built tool for narrative laundering with links to the Russian government”.

The ‘Washington’ website with roots in Russia
The story first emerged in late November on an obscure YouTube channel – one with only a handful of followers and just a single video in its feed.

The next day, it was picked up by a site called DC Weekly, alongside pictures of the two yachts – called Lucky Me and My Legacy – and documents purportedly confirming the sale of the boats to Zelensky’s associates.

But the luxury yacht brokers where both vessels are listed for sale said that the allegations are false. The sales documents appear to be forgeries. And instead of having been purchased by Zelensky or his close advisers, both Lucky Me and My Legacy are still up for sale.

The DC Weekly story touched off a blaze of online speculation, with multiple sources linking to the story and content citing the story across multiple platforms.

However, the site is not, as the name implies, a weekly publication – nor is it based in the US capital.

Research by Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren, disinformation researchers at Clemson University, shows that DC Weekly was started by John Mark Dougan, a former US Marine and Florida police officer who moved to Russia in 2016.

Mr Dougan spent three years as a deputy with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office, then after he left in 2009 he started a website spreading rumours about his former employers.

Since moving to Russia he has reinvented himself as a journalist covering the invasion of Ukraine, and has spread a number of false and baseless claims – for example that Russia was attempting to destroy biological weapons labs.

DC Weekly, the Clemson researchers discovered, is full of news stories copied from other sites and rewritten by artificial intelligence engines. The site’s “reporters” have fake names along with headshots copied from elsewhere on the internet.

Mixed in with the rewritten stories – apparently designed to give the site a sheen of legitimacy – are dubious original reports.

One such story was the origin of the yacht claim, and the Clemson researchers tracked how the story spread widely after DC Weekly published its version.

Evidence collected by the researchers indicates that the site continued to be connected to the same server as several of Mr Dougan’s other websites. BBC Verify also found that part of the DC Weekly website is hosted on a server in Moscow.

Earlier this year Mr Dougan was identified as being a DC Weekly commentator when he gave several talks at an academy affiliated with the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“It is pretty obvious to me that Dougan has been involved with DC Weekly for a long time, and remains connected to the infrastructure behind it,” Mr Warren said.

Mr Dougan said via text message that he “emphatically denies these assertions”, and that he sold DC Weekly for $3,000 several years ago. He said he does not recall the person he sold it to and has lost the paperwork due to being kicked off payment platforms and losing access to email accounts because of financial sanctions against Russia. He says he has nothing to do with the site’s current operations.

The researchers say the site is part of a much larger pro-Russia propaganda machine.

“Whether this one particular guy is behind it doesn’t really matter much,” Mr Warren said. “The key point is that it is an important element in a very substantial and effective pro-Russian influence operation that needs to be exposed and understood.”

The Ukrainian President’s Office said of the DC Weekly story: “All information in this article is fake. Zelensky and his family members do not and did not have any yachts.”

Mr Tillis and Ms Greene were contacted for comment.

A spokesperson for Mr Vance said: “For years, everyone in the West recognised that Ukraine was one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Somehow everyone forgot that just as we started sending them billions of dollars in foreign aid.”

Again, we are over fifteen years into Putin’s world war to remake the global system and we still have no effective way to counter his Information Warfare.

For those wondering if it is really a world war, here’s Putin’s actual views:

The narratives presented by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the war between Israel and Hamas claim that the West, led by the United States, is responsible for this conflict and for other regional conflicts. Putin blames the US for the war, as well as for the failure of the political process between Israel and the Palestinians, once Washington appropriated for itself the role of sole mediator and sidelined the Quartet. In addition, Putin accuses the US of fanning the flames of war and alleges that Washington is trying to use the subsequent chaos to weaken its rivals, including Russia. It is doing so, according to the Russia leader, to thwart the emergence of a multipolar new world order and to ensure that the US-led single superpower order survives. Putin asserts that Russia does not sit by idly, and it has launched a campaign of national liberation against “American hegemony” on the battlefields of Ukraine, where “the fate of Russia, and the entire world – including the fate of the Palestinian people – will be determined.”

You may not be interested in the world war Putin declared at the Munch Security Conference in 2007, but the world war is definitely interested in you!

This is a very good question:

For those of you marking Advent on your calendars this season:

 

Ukrainian Advent Calendar: Day 20 Leopard 2 is the weapon of the day! 10 countries joined the Leopard Coalition and provided these tanks to #UAarmy. We are grateful to Germany (@BMVg_Bundeswehr), Netherlands (@Defensie), Denmark (@Forsvarsmin), Poland (@MON_GOV_PL), Spain (@Defensagob), Sweden (@ForsvarsdepSv), Norway (@Forsvarsdep), Canada (@NationalDefence), Finland (@DefenceFinland) and Portugal (@defesa_pt).

Leopard 2 tanks instill great fear in the invaders. They made a decisive contribution on the frontlines. Leopards also became the most widespread #NATO tank in Ukraine.

Stand by for the next Weapon of Victory tomorrow.

#StandWithUkraine #UAMoDAdvent

Lithuania:

Japan:

From The Washington Post:

Faced with a dangerous shortfall in Ukraine’s air defenses and no easy resolution to the funding impasse in Congress, Washington has increasingly leaned on allies to provide urgent weapons support.

Help may now be coming from a partner outside Europe.

Japan is expected this week to formalize a change in policy that will enable it to export several dozen Patriot missiles to the United States, a move that would backfill Washington’s stockpiles. That would give Washington flexibility to send more of the sophisticated air defenses to Ukraine, which is in desperate need as Kyiv gears up for punishing Russian airstrikes this winter.

The change — a modification in defense export rules — will not explicitly mention the Patriot system but will meet a key request by the Biden administration, said U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because discussions are ongoing.

Japan manufactures missiles for the Patriot, the U.S. military’s premier air defense system, under license from Raytheon.

President Biden raised the issue with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David in August, during a historic tripartite summit with South Korea, and again at an economic summit in San Francisco last month. Seoul has quietly pledged to provide hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition for Ukraine over the past year — more than all European countries combined. A significant amount of that has been provided, officials said.

Japan, concerned that Russia’s invasion could embolden China to take similar action against Taiwan, has been a supporter of Ukraine. It was the first East Asian country to join Western sanctions against Moscow. Kishida, speaking in January as he kicked off the nation’s year as head of the Group of Seven, pointedly noted that “Ukraine may be the East Asia of tomorrow.”

The cabinet is expected to announce the change as early as Friday. The Patriots will not go directly to Ukraine. Rather, Japan is considering sending dozens of missiles to the United States so it can replenish its stocks earmarked for Japan and the Indo-Pacific. Tokyo has not yet furnished a timeline, but a decision on a number is expected “relatively soon,” an official said.

The munitions in question are PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptors. The former are designed to destroy some types of ballistic missiles by exploding nearby, and the latter are hit-to-kill munitions that take direct aim at missiles and aircraft and pack a larger explosive punch. The more advanced PAC-3 interceptors run about $4 million apiece, according to analysts.

The move comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a visit to Washington last week, sounded the alarm over his country’s defenses. Only a “handful” of munitions remain to protect Kyiv, and he wants more to protect major cities like Odessa, he said at a private gathering of analysts at the Ukrainian Embassy, according to a person familiar with the meeting, which was first reported by Politico.

Ukraine has a patchwork of systems to protect against aerial threats, but they are stressed by the persistent barrage of Russian missiles and drones. Meanwhile, prospects remain dim that Republican lawmakers will approve Biden’s ask for $60 billion in additional security assistance.

Germany has provided two Patriot batteries, along with one delivered by the United States. The systems allow greater coverage of the skies, but getting enoughinterceptor missiles has been a challenge, said Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat.

“The enemy attacks every day, and the expenditure of ammunition is high,” Ihnat said. Western countries have boosted production, he said. “But even this is not enough. They make weapons for themselves and for us.”

Last winter, some Russian airstrikes could have succeeded in destroying Kyiv’s power grid if not for intercepts by Ukrainian air defenses, Hardie said. “So,” he said, “even a few dozen interceptors could prove critical for Ukraine.”

Much more at the link.

Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

Bakhmut:

Bakhmut under Russian occupation now.

Two years ago, this was a well-to-do city of 70,000, a Ukrainian regional center.

We reporters remember it very well for Hotel Atlantic we all used to stay at. Many also loved a very good sushi bar called Izumi at Bakhmut’s central square.

It was a city of coffee shops, soccer stadiums, flower beds, fountains, and a famous local sparkling wine brand.

Now see what Russia has turned it into.

It’s now a giant grave that will never see any life again.

And Bakhmut is now among dozens of towns ruined by Putin’s Russia — which is terminally obsessed with a cult of death, war, senseless territorial grabs, and destruction.

We ask that the world puts aside all irrelevant deliberations and petty politics and gives Ukraine tools to repel and deter the worst European war of destruction since Adolf Hitler.

Marinka, Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

Krynky, left bank of the Dnipro, Russian occupied Kherson Oblast:

Madyar’s/Magyar’s Birds are still on the hunt!

Stepove, Avdiivka front:

Russian occupied Kherson Oblast:

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

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Ті самі моменти, коли відчуваєш себе по-справжньому щасливим❤️ #песпатрон

♬ mrs magic – ✿

Here’s the machine translation of the caption:

The very moments when you feel truly happy ❤️ #песпатрон

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

26Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    I mean, between the two of them, Greene and Vance don’t have enough brainpower to keep a 4-watt nightlight bulb burning, so…big shocker they swallowed that garbage hook, line, and sinker. Plus, you know, “greedy Jew” and all that.

    Fuck yeah, Japan. And that concern about China is very rational, considering Xi apparently told Biden at the summit in SF that he planned soon to “reunify Taiwan with China” or what the fuck ever. Never mind what Taiwanese people want!

    Thank you as always, Adam.

  2. 2.

    japa21

    In regard to Ponomarenko’s tweet, if that happened it would be denied that we actually abandoned Ukraine and that the CIA is active on the ground along with US Special Forces because Ukraine wouldn’t be able to do it on its own.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    I’m going to get cleaned up and go to bed. So just let me issue a proactive you’re welcome to AlaskaReader.

  6. 6.

    Gin & Tonic

    With the numbers of Ukrainian-Americans, Polish-Americans and other Eastern European-refugee descendants in Ohio, I have to wonder what Vance’s electoral strategy is.

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    Watch the video in the first panel of the Tendar tweet, it’s classic. And watch it with the sound up, you’ll get a chuckle.

  10. 10.

    Eolirin

    I don’t have anything really to add, but I wanted to poke my head in while I still remember to. I hope everyone is doing as well as possible.

  13. 13.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Alison Rose:

    Fuck yeah, Japan. And that concern about China is very rational, considering Xi apparently told Biden at the summit in SF that he planned soon to “reunify Taiwan with China” or what the fuck ever. Never mind what Taiwanese people want!

    Declaring an intention to a “reunify” Taiwan has been a standard stance for Chinese leaders since Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-Shek, through to Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, & now Xi Jinping. Xi also told Biden at SF that there is no time table for reunification, aimed at the speculation that have swirled in DC that there is a “window” (before 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2027, etc. have been offered at various times) within which the CPC regime wants to invade. But no, no leader on Mainland China ever cared about what people in TW want.

    As far as what the people in TW want, the overwhelming majority want to keep their de facto independence. If that means they forego de jure independence indefinitely, so be it. Some come to that position much more grudgingly than others, but that is the general consensus.

    The US abandoning Ukraine probably does not change the calculus in Beijing wrt the risks (very high) & rewards of invading TW. The global economic & supply disruption alone will be extremely painful for everyone, not the least the PRC. Any PRC decision to invade TW will have already priced in direct US intervention (possibly + Japan), & Western economic sanctions (the impact of which will probably be less than the disruption in trade from open warfare astride major sea lanes & between central nodes in the global supply chain). However, it could seed greater doubt (than that already exists) in the minds of the TWese, questioning if the US support will actually come through or be sustained, & TWese will to sustain resistance in face of invasion has always been a big question mark.

  14. 14.

    Alison Rose

    @YY_Sima Qian: I’m aware it’s been a goal forever, but stating it outright, as he apparently did, at a summit that was intended to try to cool tensions between the US and China seems a bit pointed.

    And yes, I’ve seen polls that show the vast majority of them prefer to keep things as they are, and Tsai has seemed to agree with that in interviews. But that’s what I meant — there is only a small portion of the population in Taiwan that wants reunification, but it’s not like Xi or anyone in his government cares or even believes that.

  15. 15.

    wombat probability cloud

    @Gin & Tonic: Saw that over at kos earlier today and it’s been cycling in my head, joyously, since then.

    Speaking of universal language, I’m a retired field biologist who worked in Latin America for four decades, and in the mid-2000s had an opportunity to work in Cuba. When entering with my team during an early visit, we had water-filtering gear with some porous ceramic cylinders. Cuban military guys pulled me into a back room at the airport in Havana and grilled me about the objects that looked opaque to X-rays. We sorted it out but what stuck with me was that there was a young guy who said “Oh Kah” repeatedly, and I wasn’t sure what he meant. I was slow on the uptake but finally realized he was saying “OK” in his insular style; whereas I’d heard “Oh Kay” in every other country I’d been in since the 1970s. I don’t fault him, having leaned many words sitting in front of the TV in the 1950s that I didn’t hear pronounced correctly until I left my home town.

  16. 16.

    Alison Rose

    @wombat probability cloud: I tell you what — at my last job as a CSR, I talked to a lot of folks with heavy accents. I know most white Americans will whine about certain foreign accents, but I never had much trouble with those. The ones that were the absolute hardest to understand? The Deep fuckin South. I was like, this entire vocal range is just “drawl so thick you’d need to cut it with a chainsaw”. I had one lady once whose first name was Julia, but I thought she said “Joy” and she finally had to spell it for me, and I was like “Oh, JULIA” and I really wanted to point out to her that her name has three syllables.

  17. 17.

    wjca

    @YY_Sima Qian: As far as what the people in TW want, the overwhelming majority want to keep their de facto independence. If that means they forego de jure independence indefinitely, so be it. Some come to that position much more grudgingly than others, but that is the general consensus.

    They have before them the example of Hong Kong.  Showing both what the PRC’s promises are worth, and what the reality would be like.  So as long as their independence remains real, they’re OK with it.  But they would fight to avoid Hong Kong’s fate.

  19. 19.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @wjca: Not according to the polling in TW, or the analysis out of US think tanks. Very few people in TW want to be ruled by the CPC regime, now or ever. What percentage will support picking up arms to resist an invasion remains an open questions.

  21. 21.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Alison Rose: Every PRC leader has stated the aspirational goal in very public manner, whether in Party Congresses or in meetings with their US counterparts. It is being stated more vocally now because there is a perception in Beijing that the US wants to help TW salami slice to de jure independence, & that perception will become a fire alarm should an R capture the WH. Similarly, the reason Biden, USG & Congress are becoming more vocal in supporting TW in recent years, is because there is a perception in DC that the PRC wants to salami slice to absorbing TW, to alarm that an invasion might be imminent. The two dynamics feed each other, both feed & fed by the Sino-US overall geopolitical rivalry.

    The seasoned China specialists in the US are not alarmed by Xi’s comment in SF, the people who want to get the Cold War 2.0 going are hyperventilating.

    The Chinese PLA has only conducted amphibious assault exercises at the combined brigades echelon, & amphibious logistics exercises at the group army echelon. The PLA would need to be experienced w/ amphibious assault & logistics operations at the multi-group armies echelon before the CPC regime might feel confident enough to even YOLO an invasion of TW, & the CPC regime (not since Mao, at least) does not do YOLO.

  24. 24.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Alison Rose: Yeah, one of the those utterly nonsensical (to anyone not familiar w/ the cross-Strait history post-1949) compromises to allow ROC participation in international organizations. Of course, before 1971 it was the ROC fighting tooth & nail (w/ steadfast US support) to prevent the PRC from gaining representation in international organizations.

    Then there is the matter of Kinmen & Matsu, something of an afterthought to Taiwanese nationalists & whichever government that happens to be in Taipei. There is somewhat greater familiarity in the world w/ the distinct history of Taiwan & Penghu: its Polynesian aboriginal origins, sporadic early settlement by Han Chinese colonists from the Mainland, European outposts set up by the Spaniards & the Dutch, take over by Ming loyalists from the Mainland fleeing Manchu conquest, conquest by the Manchu Qing Empire, sometimes loose sometimes tighter control by the Qing Empire (which never extended beyond the coastal plains settled by the Han Chinese colonists), ceding to Imperial Japan under duress in 1895, 5 decades of colonial rule by Japan (which started w/ a decade long bloodbath & was harsh even in the best of times), reversion to the ROC in the post-WW II settlement & immediately beset by corrupt & incompetent administration, becoming a refuge for the KMT regime post-1949 after losing its civil war to the CPC on the Mainland, decades of right wing hard authoritarian rule into the 80s, economic liberalization followed by political liberalization in the 80s – 00s, dramatic advancement into the high tech supply chain & achieving economic criticality in the 00s – 10s, the independence leaning DPP becoming the de facto political establishment after 2016 (& its position now being challenged due to underwhelming governance), & the emergence & slow consolidation of a distinctly Taiwanese identity (still very much work in progress).

    These is much less awareness of the history of the Kinmen & Matsu that is in turn distinct from that of Taiwan & Penghu. These 2 offshore islands had been tightly integrated w/ the communities in Mainland Chinese cities of Xiamen & Fuzhou, respectively, since the founding of these cities millennia ago, & were governed as counties & districts of said cities for almost as long. Their separation from the Mainland started suddenly in 1949, as the consequence of the frozen civil war & the Bamboo Curtain laid down in the Cold War. They also served as occasional battlefield between the CPC & KMT forces in the 50s, in ways that Taiwan & Penghu never experienced. Since the reopening of cross Strait trade, travel & investment in the 90s – 10s, Kinmen especially has been reintegrating into the economic sphere of Xiamen, Matsu to a lesser extent w/ Fuzhou. Many of the older residents of the two islands have purchased properties in the Mainland cities & retired there. That is not to say the people of Kinmen & Matsu would want to be rule by Beijing (especially the younger cohorts), but their sentiments toward the Mainland are different from that held by many on Taiwan & Penghu. The Taiwanese nationalists would be perfectly content to throw the people Kinmen & Matsu to the PRC if it means they can gain de jure independence.

    Then there is also the issue of over a million items of the Chinese imperial treasure (dating from the Song to the Qing Dynasties) that Chiang Kai-Shek took to Taiwan, now housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Even the die hard Taiwanese nationalists do not want to return those treasures to the PRC, & instead want to claim them as Taiwanese.

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