there is an old expression. When you ow the bank a little bit of money, the bank owns you. owe the bank a huge anount of money, and you own the bank.
China does something stupid, and they will die a very fast economic death. Their supply of oil would dry up overnight and maybe in advance of any expected hostilities. You think for a second that oil shippers would dare refuse a United States embargo under threat of force? No way.
I say it again and again: we're not going to war with China. The suits are making too much money off their slave labor. However, we have treaties with FREE peoples in the region, and the communists will make a move on them, eventually.
Only time will tell if we live up to our treaty obligations; we didn't with South Vietnam.