The great powers of Europe were so ambiguous about their intentions in 1914 that the world has yet to completely recover from the result of their dangerously vague diplomacy. Naturally the Communists invaded the next year. In 2001, there must be no doubt about this country's willingness to use force, and enough of it, to defend the real Republic of China, the one on Taiwan. But as for diplomatic conundrums like whether there are one or more Chinas, there's no need to go into provocative detail. Or to play into the stereotype of the Western imperialist looking for a fight.
Time is on our side.
Let's stretch it out, and fill the years talking cryptically. When practiced right, ambiguity ought to be deliberate, not accidental. A science, not a lapse. Call it a policy of unambiguous ambiguity. A recognition, as on certain old maps, that Here There Be Sea Monsters .