“Taiwan is 9,500 miles away,” former President Donald Trump told Bloomberg on June 25. “It’s 68 miles away from China.”

In a wide ranging interview, the 45th president sounded as if he were willing to abandon the self-governing island to Beijing, which claims it as its 34th province. As Bloomberg noted, “Trump makes it clear that, despite recent bipartisan support for Taiwan, he’s at best lukewarm about standing up to Chinese aggression.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Red State AG Subpoenas Local ‘Chinese Service Center’ Linked To Communist Party Intel Arm)

Other news organizations were not so charitable. A New York magazine headline screamed “Trump Invites China to Invade Taiwan If He Returns to Office.”

The U.S. does not have a formal treaty commitment to defend Taiwan. Instead, the U.S. for decades has maintained a policy termed “strategic ambiguity,” not telling either China or Taiwan what America would do in the case of imminent conflict.

Strategic ambiguity was developed in part to prevent Taiwan from invading China, but after the democratization of the island that has not been a concern. Despite the change in circumstances, Washington, while moving closer to Taipei, has nonetheless kept the policy in place.

As Jonathan Chait correctly wrote about strategic ambiguity in that New York piece, Trump “is blowing it to smithereens.”

Trump, with his Bloomberg interview, also smithereened America’s official “One China Policy.” Washington, pursuant to that policy, recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China, acknowledges the fact that Beijing claims Taiwan, maintains that Taiwan’s........

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