Communist China is using a cherry-picked clip of President Reagan in the trade war, showing him warning that protectionism “destroys prosperity.” The full remarks, though, show Reagan, like President Trump, imposing tariffs to force other nations to play fair.

On Monday, Beijing’s American embassy posted a clip of Reagan from April 25, 1987. It’s 87 seconds of a radio address that ran more than three times as long. In it, he says that tariffs cause “homegrown industries” to “stop competing,” “inevitably lead to retaliation” and “fierce trade wars.”

Reagan warned that “markets shrink and collapse,” when tariffs are imposed, “businesses and industry shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.” He said they’re used for “quick political advantage,” risking “America’s prosperity for … short-term appeal to some special interest group.”

Those eager to use Reagan, a Republican icon, to rebuke Mr. Trump jumped to share the truncated clip. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Mao Ning, cast the remarks as “Ronald Reagan vs. Tariffs.”

None of Beijing’s online noble comrades bothered to read Reagan’s whole address. They ignored the rhetorical grave robbing of a staunch anti-communist who considered the nationalists in democratic Free China to be the country’s legitimate government.

On Monday, Newsweek purported to print “Reagan’s 1987 Speech in Full,” but posted only 312 words of the 784-word speech. Beginning where Beijing’s editors did, it left out Reagan announcing that he was applying tariffs as a temporary tool to prompt Japan to play fair.

The day after the address, Los Angeles Times reported that Reagan was imposing “punitive 100 percent tariffs on a wide variety of goods produced by Japanese electronic giants in retaliation for Tokyo’s failure to abide by the semiconductor trade agreement.”

Reagan threw down the gauntlet in advance of a meeting with the prime minister of Japan. The president had, he said, “placed new duties on some Japanese products in response to” their violating trade agreements.

The phrase “in response” is key. Like Mr. Trump, Reagan was not starting a trade war but fighting back in one declared by a foreign power. Imposing “tariffs or trade barriers and restrictions of any kind,” he said, “are steps that I am loath to take,” but Tokyo had left him no choice.

America had “clear evidence that Japanese companies were engaging in unfair trade practices,” Reagan said, and expected them “to live up to their” word. “As I’ve often said,” he added, “our commitment to free trade is also a commitment to fair trade.”

In the address, Reagan mentioned that he “spoke of free trade” with Canada, as well. Mr. Trump has made similar comments in the runup to imposing “reciprocal tariffs.” He also seeks free trade. But, by definition, that means an end to one-sided barriers.

When Japan refused to budge, Reagan escalated, just as Mr. Trump has done in the face of Beijing’s intransigence. “I am today,” Reagan said on April 17, 1987, “releasing the list of Japanese exports … upon which tariffs are being raised.”

Reagan said America would “eliminate” the tariffs as soon as Japan stopped “dumping in third-country markets” to undercut American manufacturers and “access to the Japanese market has improved.” By the 1990s, America’s semiconductor industry was booming.

The president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation, Michael Reagan, pushed back against those spreading the truncated clip on X last month. “Yes,” he said, “my father spoke about tariffs … that was 40yrs ago. It is a different time with a different” president. “Give Trump time and get out of the way.”

Mr. Reagan also called out the hypocrisy of Beijing’s cat’s-paw. “For God’s sake,” he said, “quit using my father to bash Trump. It is amazing that you all of a sudden support my father when, for eight years, you treated him like you are treating Trump today.”

It’s amusing, this columnist is fond of saying, that dead people always agree with whomever’s quoting them. Such selective editing can make even Reagan appear to side with communists. Yet his allegiance was ever to America, and he wasn’t opposed to calling on tariffs to win one for the Gipper.