But the high-profile arrest of Ms. Meng underscored a new and disturbing spiraling in the already complex relationship the tech industry has with China and the Trump administration.

The Justice Department had been investigating Huawei on suspicion of having violated sanctions against exporting American technologies to Iran, and the arrest of Ms. Meng appears to be part of that effort. Since Huawei has become a global powerhouse in smartphones and equipment for the mobile networks, it’s no surprise that scrutiny about whose interests it is serving would increase. The company’s founder, and Ms. Meng’s father, Ren Zhengfei, was a former engineer in the People’s Liberation Army, which had long set off warning bells among American intelligence officials about Huawei’s ties with the Chinese government.

All this makes the move against Ms. Meng look like a particularly bold one and a message to China that the United States has come to play.

The government has a lot to be concerned about. As critical 5G — fifth generation — wireless networks roll out over the world, many are being deployed by Huawei. These are the networks that will usher in the next age of innovation, and the idea of China — which pretty much exemplifies the surveillance economy — dominating that age is troubling.

But I am perplexed about why the Trump administration has been such an embarrassment when it comes to the kind of actual leadership and vision needed to keep the United States at the forefront of the tech race.

Our government’s commitment to investment in what’s coming next is the best counterpart to vigilance against competitors like China. Instead, we are seeing a loud but decidedly empty effort to promote the idea that tech manufacturing should return to the United States (it won’t) and a very weak commitment to bringing qualified tech and science minds into the centers of power (a good pick for the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy has yet to be confirmed after being nominated this year).

This week, the White House released a five-year plan around STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math — that is not nearly robust enough to make the Chinese even slightly nervous that we can keep up with their decidedly more aggressive efforts to train their work force for the next era of computing.