The is the crux of the whole problem facing the West. The last sentence sums it up nicely. Leaving American behaviours aside, assuming it s part of the rest of the West, there are 3 routes to take.

The preferred choice seems to be to force a separation (of chicom and China the nation). That equals regime change.

In the absence of that, the choice is to wrestle the combined entity to the ground or to come to some sort of negotiated acceptance and normalization of relationships with it. The latter however means new world order and new rules. That has no currency whatsoever either, not while America is around.

So the first two options would be exhausted first. Whether that leads to success or disaster is the key question. And the real question, it seems to me, is what success means here and the price to be paid, by each party involved, for that success.