The Washington Post published an article on Saturday supposedly based on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's response to a question posed to him by one of its writers after the Ukrainian leader's virtual address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
According to the article, Zelensky called for international support for Taiwan "before China attacks", and proposed that his reply "represented the most assertive defense of Taiwan and its right to exist that he or any member of his government has made to date".
In its phrasing, the question was a leading one. "Following his prepared remarks, I asked Zelensky what advice he had regarding Taiwan, which is facing a similar (although not yet violent) campaign of economic and military coercion from its neighbor, China".
It was, as can be seen, an ill-intended question aimed at soliciting Zelensky's endorsement of the narrative being peddled by Washington and Taipei that Taiwan's "situation vis-a-vis China" is similar to "Ukraine's suffering at the hands of Russia".
Instead, despite the Post writer doing his best in his article to graft the flower of one tree onto another, Zelensky sidestepped around the answer he was being invited and expected to give by speaking of the lesson that the international community should learn from the Ukraine conflict.
Asserting that once violence breaks out, the human costs are staggering, Zelensky said that every effort should be made in a preemptive way to find a diplomatic solution so as to avoid outright conflict.
Which is what Beijing is doing. Although it has made clear that the reunification of Taiwan with the motherland is a certainty, it is making every effort to achieve this peacefully and has repeatedly stressed that this is in the interests of people on both sides of the Straits.
Zelensky's observation was one that the China hawks in Washington should heed.
By running a piece that paraphrased Zelensky's replies in such a distorted way, the Post showed how the US media will twist words to suit the message that they want to send.
As such, the article was a shameful indictment of how far the Post has strayed from the principles displayed in brass linotype letters at an entrance to its newsroom, one of which is that "The newspaper shall tell ALL the truth so far as it can learn it, concerning the important affairs of America and the world".
Contrary to the stated principles of the newspaper, the article was an ally of special interests; those dictating the United States' aggressive foreign policy.
It is these speculative profiteers that are obsessively playing the Taiwan card, pouring gasoline on the flames of the Ukraine conflict and exploiting sanctions for their own gain.