Last Tuesday, China’s foreign minister called America’s top diplomat — and the two governments came away with two different phone calls. Beijing’s readout carried a pointed warning about Taiwan. Washington’s readout did not mention Taiwan at all.

This week: Beijing raised its voice on Taiwan three times in three days — a phone call, a speech, and a law. In the same three days, Washington’s official voice on Taiwan stayed quiet, while its unofficial voice got louder than it has ever been. And underneath the whole argument, the numbers that once tied Taiwan’s economy to China moved — again — in one direction: toward the United States. Three stories, one pattern.