You are being too simplistic and patronising too.

China also has a role to play in this trade dispute. If their economy shrinks because they are in a trade war with the US - well then, the average Chinese citizen will suffer which leads to protests against their one party leadership. No matter what any misinformed political commentator says, China is extremely keen on keeping "business as usual". No conflict, no changes for the worse but no changes to help the US either.

And if there is a trade war the US is also capable of diversifying to new suppliers in India, Vietnam or wherever. China doesn't have anything serious to threaten the US with* (it's a complicated issue).

The fundamental thing is that the US & China love doing business with each other, but the US thinks China is not being fair. The US is saying that China isn't respecting US Intellectual Property and rules & government economic assistance make it too difficult for US companies to profit in China. This results in an imbalance of trade payments with China earning more than the US, and the US wants the balance shifted to be more favourable for the US. China isn't interested in obeying US requests to shift trade rules to favour the US, so the US wants to make all of China's major trading partners follow a set of rules (the TPP) with the hope one day China will be forced to follow too (a smart move too, because they will).