There's hole to that argument US bluffing about decoupling.
Many conservative would love to go back pre Nixon time when China was not engaged. There's this sentiment of big regret of engaging China and brought it to WTO subsequently. This cold war against China is seen as redemption.
Many of them think by decoupling, China would greatly dimished and that means China would less capable of challenging US leadership in the world.
To them, that perceived benefit would outweight the idea of controlling China.
Boxing China to a hole and contained is a very appealing idea to them.
To them even if it means costing more to US. To greatly dimish the strongest opponent is worth it.
Read about Peter morici article.
China , cannot take that as bluffing, it has to prepare for that .
I can't think of a single military weapons system China would want to import from the US that they would be willing to sell to them.
If China does increase imports it will likely be things they already purchase from the US like food or civilian aircraft.
That's painfully naive coming from a board director.
If strategic national decision making were left to these people, they'd see no need for a strategic oil reserve, strategic food reserve, strategic nuclear arms, etc. It's just a waste of money to buy something and let it sit around, so let's not buy it. Oh they'd never starve us of fuel or food, who would commit such an atrocity? Answer: Only every great power in history. We need look no further than the 20th and 21st century to see the victims of such strategies: North Korea, Iran, Japan, Yemen, Vietnam, USSR, Germany, UK, Venezuela, the list goes on.
They won't sell F16s to China, China probably already has all the intel it needs on F16s from other countries that own F16s, and you better believe those F16s will be rigged to collect intel for the U.S. Talk about back doors. You seem to have a knack for unworkable proposals. Regardless, China seems to mostly just want to order passenger jets, soy beans, and semiconductors. And it's better to keep it that way.
What you don’t get is that US wants to work out a way to eliminate ALL trade deficit or at least a large part of them.
US needs food export and passenger planes to even get the current trade balance, which is highly stacked up against them. Consumers in China are already buying everything they need from America, there’s zero demand for more.
Of course, the onus is on the US to come claim it’s export money. If they don’t want it, they don’t have to take it.
Choice quotes from Lighthizer about the trade war/deal with China:
"We have to be number one. We just have to stay number one. And by the way most people in the world want us to be number one." -Lighthizer
Skip to 2:21:00 to see the quote.