> the only road left is escalation.

The other road is isolation, which I find much more likely. They'll just cut us off completely and deal with it.

These are not totally exclusive — the world may isolate the USA, and the USA may escalate with anyone (or everyone) to a hot war.

China has no interest in isolating from the rest of the world, Taiwan especially.

OP meant the US. The world and its allies will isolate US. Just like they did with Soviets.

I don’t see the Chinese willing to escalate, at least not kinetically. For now, it looks more likely that they are going to let the US have enough rope to hang themselves, seize opportunities, and play the long game.

The other possibility is that there's no strategy or goal beyond the fact that Trump likes the word "tariff".