If China had hard power... If China had hard power, it would've used it. You know ways of people who climb high in CPC. If they have a gun, they shoot.
Now, again, I don't have to tell how dangerous empty threats are to people who know CPC. If you are telling a man "I WILL KIIIILLL YOIUUUUUU!!! FEAR MEEEE," and not acting on it, you tell two things: first, that you are his enemy and you will try to kill him if you can, and second, that you can not really kill him now, and it is the best to retaliate against you while it is so.
I see how the situation will be playing out:
Monday: the boy who reads out news aloud in zhongnanhai rings the buzzer, — "Those Americans are not happy with something again! They are up to something weird!," — "Throw it to Ding to prepare for the Friday meeting, and let me sleep now!"
Friday: everybody had few days to think over it. PBSC meeting happens, diatribes read, capitalists being accursed. After the meeting Xi calls his buddies to do the actual decision making. Zhong will say that Americans are bluffing, Liu and Wang will say that Americans are probably not bluffing, but still not worth the worry.
I do expect that Xi will throw some meat on the table for Americans, but without much understanding to which ends it is.
Xi doesn't care about the West. He is neither afraid of it, nor he sees anything of value in the conflict. To him, internal matters are far more important, and I think he doesn't make a connection there. Most of Xi's foreign policy decisions are actually made by his advisers, and close circle.