On his recent trip to India and Vietnam, President Joe Biden declared that the United States had no intention “to contain China,” that America is “not looking to hurt China” and that “we are all better off if China does well.” Chinese reactions were muted. But Beijing indeed sees U.S. efforts in the Indo-Pacific very differently from the president’s positive rhetoric. The U.S. policy of “strategic competition” with China is designed to contain the nation and limit its regional influence. China has been very vocal about that. To an objective observer, China and the United States seem to exist in...