War is not their last resort card. It's their first choice card. I don't know non-Chinese east Asian politics that well but I'd assume US would attempt to lure one of those countries like Japan into a conflict against China and then supply Japan (just as they lured Russia into the Ukraine War), instead of getting involved directly. I have learned that there are countries that are willing to chop off their own limbs for USA.
Don't forget mighty Canada. Our schools teach us the Normandy Landings, after the Germans had lost most of their manpower to the Soviets, was the turning point of the war.
Indeed it seems clear that China’s leadership are clear eyed about the true war-like nature of Anglos.
This is a core reason why China has been so restrained previously in its dealings with the Anglos, always leaving them enough room to climb back down without forcing them into a corner from which war is the only viable option left to them. But that is changing as the balance of hard power tips ever more in China’s favour.
The RE moves are also designed to hard counter any attempt by the U.S. to copy and paste Ukraine in Asia. Because with the RE restrictions in force, every missile, bomb and plane they sent to Japan in a proxy way will be one less from their own inventories. Not to mention the vastly different geographical and logistical situations.
Basically I think Beijing has concluded that war with Japan as basically a forgone conclusion, and has been preparing accordingly for decades now. And rather than being an eastern Ukraine, a Japanese campaign will look very different since Japan is an island nation utterly dependent on shipments of basically every major resource for normal daily life, while being geographically isolated from possible allied support. They will get bombed and blockages to hell and back, with massive and unrestrained use of naval mines by the PLAN in the second island chain to sever their sea transport links with the U.S. and Australia (that’s the main reason China’s ultra large UUAVs are so large and have mine laying as a key feature) without even needing to rely on Chinese carrier fleets or manned subs, both of which will also be massively active to massive increase the risks and costs of trying to resupply Japan. There will also no zero tolerance of 3rd parties ostensively flying the flag of neutrality while functioning as part of Japanese kill chains. So their intelligence gather, targeting and battle damage assessments capabilities will be massively limited, which will fundamentally limit the effectiveness of any advanced weapons they do manage to get.
While Japan is being bombed back to the Stone Age and systematically starved of all resources, China will focus to settle the Korean question. Either SK flips sides totally and becomes an actively participating Chinese ally, or they get absorbed by North Korea with direct PLA combat support.
Once SK has been flipped/pacified, it will be used as the main springboard for the invasion of the Japanese home islands. And this time, there won’t be any comprised half measures. Either the Japanese accepts Nuremberg style cleansing of its entire society of all fascist roots, or they can feed their entire adult population into the meat grinder against overwhelming Chinese firepower and swarms of unmanned ground combat constructs to achieve the same goal. But that won’t be so much the Ukrainian model as it will be the Gaza model.