[ikalugin]

The issue for the US is that PRC is most definitely a nuclear power (unlike say DPRK which is a solid maybe).

This means that many military tools that US has gotten used to using (long range cruise missiles strikes, stealth bomber strikes, etc) and which US would need to break up a determined Chinese opposition are very dangerous to use, as their use may be interpreted by an adversary as a first strike against its nuclear forces (is so called damage limitation strike) and thus would warrant a nuclear response early in the conflict, which may be undesirable.

There is a great deal of scholarship on this topic nowadays, you may be interested in it here or in the parallel thread.

P.s it is rather surprising to me that the whole nuclear aspect is being ignored here.