China doesn't need to go to war to achieve its goals, they simply need to continue peaceful (and profitable) economic development of the Global South and watch the neo-liberal West led by the United States implode under its own weight and debt.
The West may try to goad China into a war as a last ditch attempt to avoid having to pay them back the trillions they're owed, but it will likely backfire on them as it has many times before.
China is also badly in debt, with much of that debt based on unproductive assets like overbuilt infrastructure, empty cities, and dodgy financing by local government entities. In addition, China has an unbalanced demographic profile that is likely to lead to economic decline and social disorder due to an excess of young men with little prospect of marriage. On the whole, China will grow old without becoming rich.
The advantage that the US and the West and its allies have is that their political systems are mature and their economies resilient and productive in ways that the rest of the world is not. One way or another, the debt bomb of the developed nations will be paid down and defused.