I feel you might have to be very careful as the Chinese might well feel they had no choice but to enter into a shooting war, even if they knew they were bound to lose. It would be kind of like a reverse opium war, in fact with the fentanyl that’s exactly what it would be.
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If the U.S. could clamp down and stop all our trade with China, both direct and indirect, and get substantial buy-in from many if not most of our allies (a big if!), then China would collapse rapidly and the communists would be driven from power.
Their hold on the country is already tenuous, as they have created massive unemployment and dislocations. The prosperity we see is strictly in the coastal regions.
Admittedly, China's military has teeth. The goal would be to collapse the communist system, like that of the USSR, without any direct military conflict.
Why now??
ANSWER: Because the problem will only get worse, year after year. Later might be too late.
Besides, Trump is "The chosen one," (historical not spiritual reference) to whom it has fallen to deal with China.
As he says: His predecessors should have dealt with the problem when it was much simpler.
But, OH YEAH ... Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama were all globalists----post-USSR Presidents who actively involved themselves in helping China become established as a formidable enemy of the USA.