China is not ever going to invade the USA of course.
If they think they're the best and have no reason to expand because of that, the only threat is to our egos.
The benefits in return for tribute were often greater than the tribute, but it did show a high level of domination of its neighbors for most of its history.
But we have it baked in that we're the arbiter of what every country does globally, and a history of military action putatively justified by those moral concerns.
And if it's just about power for its own sake, fine. But the records of military adventurism are in fact starkly different over the last 200 years. Xi might ramp it up and we might ramp it down, but for now the spectre of Chinese militarism reminds me of those two hunter guys from South Park, "it's coming right at us!"