Taiwan Politely Reminded the President They Were Already Independent.

Here’s a thing you learn early in West Texas. If a man feels the need to warn you not to do something, he is usually worried you have already done it.

The President of the United States flew home from Beijing this week. On his way out, Fox News asked him about Taiwan. He told the camera he was not looking to have anybody “go independent.” He added that we are not looking for somebody to declare independence “because the United States is backing us.” He repeated himself a couple of times, in case anyone in the audience missed it.

By Saturday morning, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry had a statement on its website. Karen Kuo, who speaks for the Presidential Office, put the position in plain English. The Republic of China, she said, is a sovereign, independent democratic country. This is self-evident.

It is self-evident.

A small geography note.

Taiwan has twenty-four million people. It has its own currency. It has its own military. It has its own passport, its own elections, its own president, its own time zone, and a thriving economy that makes most of the world’s advanced semiconductors. It has been doing all of this for roughly seventy-five years. There is a foreign ministry. There is a foreign minister. His name is Lin Chia-lung, and he was at work on Saturday, sending statements.

The diner test.

I have worked the breakfast shift for thirty years. I know what a customer sounds like when he is trying to put something back without admitting it. He brings up the check. He brings it up casually. He says he was just thinking. He says he is not looking to make a thing of it.

A president who flies to Beijing, sits with the Chinese leader for two days, and then on his way home tells a friendly camera that the United States is not interested in anybody “going independent,” is not making small talk. He is reading the menu Beijing handed him.

Taiwan’s response, in full politeness.

Foreign Minister Lin called Taiwan a “guardian of peace and stability” in the region. He said Beijing has no right to claim jurisdiction over the island. He thanked the United States for what he called its repeated assurances. The Taiwanese government’s tone, end to end, was the tone of a teacher gently correcting a student who has gotten the assignment slightly wrong.

The student did not respond. The student got on his plane and flew home.

Twenty-four million people stayed where they were.