[Little Ray]

Maybe.
But the last time we pushed an Asian power to the brink, we got Pearl Harbor.

[RinaseaofDs]

Nobody is blockading China.

All that is happening now is that we are forcing them to compete on the same terms every other country is.

A blockade is a causis belli. No doubt.

They aren’t going to go to war declaring, “The US no longer allows us to steal their technology, impose unbalanced, unanswered tariffs, and then dump our products into their markets.”

[pierrem15]

Then as now we ratcheted up the pressure to the point that defeat and/or regime change was in the air. The other side, however, had ratcheted up its aggression over a period of several years, so it's hard to know what the best course of action would be.

To me, the longer we wait, the stronger China is going to become. Better to force them to be openly aggressive than allow them to slowly gain geostrategic advantage. Right now, a US blockade would mean China gets nothing in or out by sea, bringing its economy to a halt and producing serious food shortages. There simply isn't enough rail capacity to make it up. The CCP would probably respond with missile attacks on US bases in the Asia/Pacific and probably massive cyber attacks on US business and infrastructure. They could also prompt the Norks to try some BS, in which case turning NK into a glass parking lot would be a good idea. Right now they have managed to alienate everyone around them, and neighbors like India might find this a good opportunity to dogpile on the Chinese.