Uganda, April 19 -- The latest campaign of the United States against China is the charge that the Asian country has excess capacity in a range of manufactured goods and so should restrain its exports.

The truth is simpler. China and other East Asian countries are the low-cost producers of a range of high-quality industrial products that the world urgently needs: Solar modules, electric vehicles, wind turbines, efficient batteries, 5G and more. Since the US lags behind China in these sectors, Washington is badmouthing it, characterising China's success as some kind of bad behaviour.

The US approach to China is based on a mix of arrogance, nastiness and naivete. Arrogance in that the US runs the world, so how dare China have such economic...