President-Elect Angry Tiny Fingers was tweeting smack about China yesterday too. Eventually it becomes less about what Trump will actually do rather than what China thinks and if they get sick of his bullshit.
Poking at longstanding territorial issues that could draw nuclear powers into direct conflict is not a trivial undertaking.
Conflict is inevitable. The choice is between fighting back now or fighting back later. My personal opinion is the U.S. will continue to be in a weaker and weaker position as the years roll onward.
We're going to find out soon enough which country truly owns the other.
But, many in this thread have a wrong view of who China is made up of. China is more like a corporation than a dictatorship. While the U.S. has continually stocked the federal government with lawyers and community activists, China has been stocking their leadership with business minds. China's government has been making moves to own the future of technology. If all you see is China bullying neighbors with their military, or abusing its citizens, you're missing the larger picture of what is going on.