An Error I Often See and Occasionally Feel the Need to Correct

"Official U.S. policy," Joseph Solis-Mullen writes at The Libertarian Institute, "recognizes that there is one China and its official government is in Beijing, and acknowledges Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is a part of China."

Nope.

Ever since the 1972 "Joint Communique" between the US and the People's Republic, the former has "acknowledged" the latter's position that Taiwan's "official government" is in Beijing, without ever, at any point, "recognizing" that position as correct. It treats the matter as "unsettled."

And then there's reality:

Taiwan is not now, and never has been, ruled by the People's Republic of China. In fact, it hasn't been ruled from the mainland since 1895, prior to which that rule was occasional and temporary.

The US, Taiwan, and many other regimes play a silly little game. They don't say that Taiwan is an independent nation, lest Xi Jinping throw himself on the floor and roll around holding his breath until he turns blue, but everyone involved knows that it is in fact an independent nation.

If the PRC regime decides to invade, conquer, occupy, and annex Taiwan, it will be doing exactly that, not suppressing an "internal" rebellion.

I'm opposed to the US regime playing any part in attempting to prevent that, but I also don't think the US regime should coddle the PRC's temper tantrums on the matter.