All the time I hear "We're already at war with China, we're just waking up to it.". This reminds a lot to me like Trump's "What have you got to lose?" line. I don't think anyone living knows what real economic, financial, and military warfare with a near-peer power looks like.
Quite frankly, it sounds to me like something someone would say in July 1914.
There is also this notion I keep hearing: "We're only proposing to have a Cold War, not a Hot one." I think this forgets just how close the Cold War came to being a Hot one multiple times. Another Cold War *seems* innocuous because we know how the last one ended.
A lot of people responding to this seem to believe that taking war and peace seriously is ITSELF appeasement. The point is to define what our red lines really are, rather than treating everything as a red line and finding (only later) we've bitter off a lot more than we thought.
But there seems to be a "tough guy" mentality here arguing anything short of escalation is appeasement. What I find funny is that it often comes from people who are extremely critical of our rush to invade Iraq in 2003.
My philosophy on China has always been "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Both parts of that equation.
