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At three different points in President Obama’s recent speech at the Charlotte convention, he cited the economic challenges that China poses to the United States. In other speeches, he has alluded to what he seems to regard as a U.S.-China race to promote the use of “green” energy sources. Indeed, to win that race, the administration is spending large sums of taxpayer money and imposing strict mandates designed to push green technologies that cannot pass the market test. The China threat also serves as a big part of the president’s rationale for protecting weak U.S. firms from foreign competition and for his schemes to reshape the U.S. auto sector.

Like the president, many Americans are clearly impressed with the results that...