If it were such a great move against China, why didn't they do it before? They're all allies of the US. What was the hold up? All you have to do is look at North Korea. They called North Korea the most backward country in the world yet they're so worried about it. They spend so much time and attention making North Korea the biggest threat in the world. Why? The US wants control of the world completely. Anyone defies the US means they're not in control of the world completely. Control of the world is the US's obsession. China is 1/5 of the world. Why is it so important? Because their God created the universe. Their entire culture is based on Christian values. North Korea nor China are mentioned in the Bible. The Bible ignores a large portion of the world. Wouldn't God the creator of all things know of his own creations? That's because the Bible wasn't written by God. It was written by mortal men who only knew of the known world to them at the time. China has been around longer than the Bible says there was an Earth. China's existence proves what they believe is a lie. The only way they can rectify that is to take over North Korea, China and the rest of non-Christian world and rewrite their histories in devotion to their religion. If they can't ignore North Korea, they certainly can't ignore China. They're the ones committing an act of war. They spin it as China is a threat to world peace but they're the ones going out of their way to undermine China. So any attempts at isolation is not so they can ignore China. China's existence alone is a threat to everything they were taught to believe. It's all about thinking they can starve China of what it needs to make the Chinese surrender. Any attempt to isolate China is one-step away from war. No one came to assist the US on taking on North Korea meaning the US was alone and it chickened out in the end. But somehow they think they can take on China...? China can do much worse to them than North Korea can ever do.
They cry that China's South China Sea moves will let China disrupt trade of its neighbors. China can do that without the South China Sea. China can do that just by stopping trade with other countries. They see North Korea can be a menace by using military means to disrupt Japanese and South Korea trade. What do they think China can do? They think they can isolate China to the point they can starve China into surrendering and China will do nothing? This is all on the assumption that US allies are as dumb as Trump to then follow his plan.
Look at Australia and Canada. They think they can insult China but China has to continue buying their goods as normal or even more. They're shocked that China has punished them and act like they don't know what they did wrong for them to be punish. All their plans that they think China will surrender all have the same mistake. They think China will do nothing. That's a fatal error. This is like the discussion in Ballistic Missile thread. People think the US can use nukes and there are no consequences at all. Does the US allies in Asia want nuclear weapons exploding next door to them? Same thing when it comes trying to economically isolate and starve China into surrendering.
Trump is touting that he took on China like no other President. Yeah and he failed miserable hence why he can only point to that he took on China and not point to any victories. The Republicans hate the trophy culture. They hate it when leftist liberal communist teachers give students "A"s just for effort. Trump touting he took on China is giving an "A" for effort.