China would sign their own death warrant if they conducted a preliminary strike on US military personnel anywhere in the World over Taiwan. It would be the dumbest move since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

China needs the United States 10x more than we need them. We can use our 11 carrier battle groups to choke off China from the rest of the world within a couple of weeks. Once we do that, there is nothing they can do. They will wither on the vine. The only thing keeping them afloat is world trade and without that, they are done.

Repeat after me... China does NOT have a blue water navy to project their power across the globe. Only one country has that. The United States. Without a blue water navy they can't defend their trade routes through the choke points in the oceans. All the US navy needs to do is close off those choke points and it's GAME OVER for the Chinese. Period. End of story.