A war, or blockade, could send the world economy into a freefall, that, as things stand now, would strengthen the dollar, making the world even more dependent (via economic vulnerability to a collapsing dollar) on the US, something China obviously doesn't want.

That is, conflict will strengthen the dollar as it's the only real reserve currency at the moment, even though the US is 31 TRILLION dollars in debt. The USD is a house of cards teetering on collapse, and the only thing holding it up is that the USD is the world reserve currency.

If that status changes, even a little, the US is in deep shit.

As the reserve currency, a collapse would harm other countries, so they're vulnerable in that sense, and it's one reason China would not want to change that status unless it had a Plan B. The BRICS currency could be part of that Plan B.

In fact, a blockade on Taiwan could serve more than one purpose for China. And if they were to take that leap, wouldn't they do it to serve more than one purpose? Wouldn't they use this Taiwan situation to achieve more than just getting Taiwan back?

If they're smart, and careful, and really fucking tricky, they could use the situation to actually topple the US, or at least topple the USD as reserve currency.

And if that happens, that 31 Trillion dollar debt note is going to be called in.

EDIT: Should have added that the only reason the US can accumulate 31 trillion in debt is because it's the reserve currency. It prints money to service the interest on its debt, and the world lets it get away with this because it has no choice. Again, if that status changes, the US is in deep shit.

This video is embedded in one of the earlier links.

And here's part 2 of that video.