Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker thinks President Donald Trump should not have given Chinese President Xi Jinping such a warm welcome to the United States.

“Quite frankly,” Wicker said, according to Mississippi Today, he would have advised Trump not to invite Xi for such a “lavish welcome.”

Wicker has legitimate concerns about China.

China is a fierce economic competitor and Taiwan remains a dangerous source of tension.

But Wicker draws the wrong lesson from those problems.

The United States does not become stronger by refusing to welcome the leader of the world’s second-largest economy.

It becomes stronger by competing with China while keeping the relationship stable enough that competition does not become war.

For years, Washington has increasingly treated China as something approaching a permanent enemy.

And ordinary Americans were left paying some of the economic costs.

But there is another approach.

Protect critical American industries but look for areas where the two largest economic powers can benefit from cooperation.

Diplomacy matters most when countries disagree.

Nobody needs a diplomatic breakthrough with a country that already agrees with them.

Wicker himself acknowledged that he hoped Trump’s meetings with Xi could produce progress on trade and artificial intelligence.

And that gets closer to the point.

Together, the United States and China account for an enormous share of the world’s economic and military power.

The question is whether competition will be managed intelligently or allowed to become increasingly hostile.

Trump’s state dinner does not solve that problem.

But America should also talk, trade, negotiate, and search relentlessly for areas of cooperation.

Roger Wicker sees a lavish welcome for Xi Jinping and worries that America looks weak.

We should instead see a country confident enough to sit across the table from its strongest competitor.

True American strength should be keeping competition from becoming conflict.