Perhaps he's afraid that messing with China is dangerous, because US is too reliant on Chinese products etc. And he knows unlunlike other defenseless country, China might not put up with our bs for long, and cut everything off. ...but the optics are fascinating.
My guess is, likely there's planned tensions with China. This might not lead to war, but problems with supply lines maybe etc... The public is being prepared to hunker down, due without, forget your freedom etc.. Virus, China, Russia, you name it. Likely gonna be one crisis after another