I am not defending the US, but this guy is straight up drinking the KOOL aid, likely because he has family and businesses he cares about in China and those things can easily be taken away by the state if they wanted to.
There is a propaganda war going on that is for sure. So much exaggerated and negative media about China, all in last few years. This is all from C.I.A. playbook they did the same to the Soviets, Evil empire etc.
What will MAGA do if bodies are in the streets of Omaha and Gary Indiana and Los Angeles? The Chinese have been there with Japanese aggression. They still remember invaders on their lands. Most Americans have no idea behind cousin Tony's PTSD from Iraq.
1) assumptions of alliance roles in ASEAN would be a mistake.
2) it will not be a hot war fought in Asia only. Continental USA will suffer damage equal to what it causes in the Chinese heartland.
The rest is chest beating. But, so is belief the f35 will win against all, or anti ICBM are flawless. Personally I expect it will be a cold war by proxy in minor dysfunctional nation states as it has been since WW2.
Side note. Yes: all Chinese do national service. It's like 6 weeks basic. Only a few do PLA serious training.
The point about Taiwan was good. A lot of recent foreign policy from Australia and America misunderstood or misstated the Taiwanese view for its own ends.
There is a persistent belief across the cold war all European NATO "allies" expected to seize control of US nukes in their domain. None of them wanted a hot war.
China hasn't had good history of democracy in recent times but Chinese nationalism is very consistently voiced in defence of the state, spratlys aside. If China wants allies in region, it will win hearts and minds as soon as it stops treading on Vietnamese, Philippines and like territorial claims in the south China Sea. The US would have a hill to climb by comparison, if it wanted allies in a hot war.