And here's where the rhetoric gets to a knife-edge. Just as Kennedy avoided a war by referring to our ships around Cuba as a "quarantine" rather than a "blockade," the trick here will be to make all the moves like we're declaring them an enemy without openly declaring it.

As for "not leaving China any choice," they already don't have one. I don't know if you realize just how weak the Chinese military is, but they MUST avoid a war with us at any and all costs. They're not even a one-to-one match for Japan, let alone us. They'll do a lot of huffing and puffing, but they cannot afford a war. What I think will happen is this:

China will get hit, and roll back into a downslope cycle for a while, as their rising and falling power has done for centuries. However, they will spend their time indoctrinating their kids to remember this, framing it as one more "national humiliation of the motherland" by "eeeeevil Western imperialists," with the mandate to one day restore China to a level where they can take revenge for this alleged "humiliation." China has a long memory, after all. Then, a few generations (or maybe even a century or two) from now, they'll be on the upswing again, and THAT will be the day when the world, especially the US, will need to fear them.
But in my lifetime, my children's lifetime, and even my grandchildren's lifetime, China is nothing to be afraid of, as long as America keeps up the pressure and finishes the job of beating them.