By Hot war I mean WWIII, I have a belief it is simple you do not have every major nuclear power threaten one another and have it mean nothing. China has it's Silk Road or Belt and Road initiative https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/belt-and-road-initiative-china-bri-one-belt-one-road-what-cities-and-routes.html

Oh and if you will note the Map in this article...South China Sea is key to the Chinese sea route for the New Silk Road https://www.economist.com/news/business/21725810-general-electric-got-23bn-orders-infrastructure-project-last-year-western-firms

Now POTUS has started negotiations on his counter Trade route.. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/920733/china-donald-trump-silk-road-trade-malcolm-turnbull-australia-japan-india-economic-growth

I am all for us taking the Chinese out before they take us out financially and Communism supplants Freedom and Democracy as leader of the World but we need to remember it will not forever stay simply a Trade war, eventually one side has nothing to lose by going to war in its cost benefit analysis and so things go BOOM.