Main problem of US is not China or any other foreign country . Main problem is internal decline of US , sickness without cure ,at least for now . To put it bluntly , US was founded as Christian (mostly Protestant) country with population of European descent ( Anglo-Saxon , some German , Dutch , French etc ... ) . US institutions , Constitution and laws were based on Christian morality and European philosophy and science of that era .
In a present era , we have something almost entirely different - values has changed , culture has changed , demographics are changing . US is now secular country with official leftist ideology . Economically is no longer a producer , instead it is largest consumer in the world . What is even worse , those changes have not affected whole country at the same time and level . For example , if you compare let's say California and Texas , you would be under impression that these two are parts of totally different countries .
With such internal problems , US is struggling to remain dominant world power . In a typical fashion , when all you have is a hammer , everything looks like a nail . What US still has is military power , especially air and naval power . Therefore , US is using every opportunity to assert said military power to the rest of the world . To do that , they need opponents . Smaller enemies (Iraq , Syria ...) have been used in direct fashion - US simply attacked them to prove military superiority . Larger opponents (China , Russia etc ...) could not be attacked directly . But , they serve their function . For example , real or imagined threat of Chinese aggression serves as good pretext for US to keep sizable force in East Asia and to keep countries like Japan and S.Korea under American protective umbrella . Otherwise , without constant threat of conflict , those countries would have little reason to remain allied to US ,and to spend money buying American military hardware .
In light of this , what would be best Chinese counter-strategy ? China needs to remain cool and to defuse possibility for armed conflict as much it is possible . Last thing China wants is some kind of new Cold War , without actual shooting but with trade barriers . Time is on China's side - with each passing year technological and economic gap between US and China is closing . Therefore , there is no need to get upset over every little provocation - China just needs to keep working and in 10 years it would emerge on top , no matter what other countries may or may not do .
