As he prepared to leave the White House on Saturday for a stay at Camp David, President Biden took a few questions from reporters. Most of the colloquy was about funding to deal with the immigration crisis, but the first question concerned Taiwan, where a new president — Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party —was elected on Saturday.

“Mr. President,” Biden was asked, “do you have a reaction to the Taiwan election?”

His response, according to the White House transcript, was terse: “We do not support independence.”

That was all he said about the Taiwan vote, but it was enough to generate headlines. Reuters promptly issued a story — “US does not support Taiwan independence, Biden says” — that managed to spin the president’s five-word answer into a 500-word news account. Similar stories appeared in The Hill, Fox News, Politico, and Bloomberg. Together, they reinforced the unfortunate impression that the White House sees the vote in Taiwan — and the victory of a candidate detested by Beijing — first and foremost as a problem.

What Biden ought to have said right off the bat was: Congratulations.

Lai won a convincing victory in a free and robust election, and he did so despite — or perhaps because of — China’s heavy-handed opposition. In the weeks leading up to the election, Beijing smeared the DPP candidate as a “troublemaker,” a “destroyer of peace,” and a separatist who “clings stubbornly” to the prospect of Taiwan independence. The mainland’s Communist regime warned Taiwanese voters that they would be choosing between “peace and war.” There was nothing subtle about China’s attempt to intimidate Taiwan into rejecting Lai, a vigorous defender of Taiwan’s autonomy and democracy. And it failed.

When asked for his reaction, Biden should have applauded the people of Taiwan for refusing to be browbeaten. He should have said that the United States not only supports the democratic decision Taiwan’s people have made, but endorses the underlying message of the vote — that the Taiwanese are determined to protect their freedom and autonomy, and firmly reject the ahistorical canard that Taiwan is merely a renegade Chinese province that must be reunified with the dictatorship across the Taiwan Strait.

Having given a speech earlier this month about threats to America’s democratic institutions, Biden might have observed that the strength of Taiwan’s democracy is an inspiration to free people — and people who yearn to be free — everywhere. As recently as 35 years ago, Taiwan was a one-party autocracy with a poor human rights record. Now it is a thriving, open, free multiparty democracy, as well as an economic powerhouse with the 20th-largest economy in the world. In the authoritative Freedom House tally of political and civil liberties worldwide, Taiwan scores 94 out of a possible 100 — markedly higher than even the United States.

Rather than disparage Taiwanese independence, Biden could have seized the moment to state what everyone knows to be true: For all intents and purposes, Taiwan is independent. It controls its own territory, enacts its own laws, elects its own leaders, flies its own flag, maintains its own military, issues its own currency, and is represented abroad by its own diplomats. The morning after Taiwan’s election was not the moment for the president of the United States to issue an admonition against a formal declaration of Taiwanese independence. It would have been better by far for him to have sternly admonished China and its ruler Xi Jinping to curb their threats. And it would have been a good moment to remind the world that the United States has committed itself, in the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, to ensure the defense of Taiwan against any Chinese attack.

“Taiwan is a democratic ally and faithful friend of the American people,” Biden might have stressed, “and the American people in turn will see to it that Taiwan can successfully repel any assault on its liberty.”

The chief threat to peace and stability in Asia today is not democracy in Taiwan. It is belligerence in China. The world is still unsettled by Biden’s abandonment of Afghanistan in 2021 — a blunder that has emboldened aggression by evil regimes from Russia to Gaza to Iran. It is imperative that the United States not compound that failure by signaling any weakness of resolve in East Asia. China may have paid no penalty for extinguishing Hong Kong’s political liberty, but under no circumstances can it be allowed to think it can get away with doing the same to Taiwan. Preserving the freedom, security, and autonomy of that democratic island is in the highest interest of the free world. When the American president — or any of the men and women running to replace him — is asked about Taiwan, that should be the first response.