It's very unlikely that either side will start a hot war. There's a risk that Russia will back China and Russia's latest ICBMs are on par or better than anything the west has. It would be all over in a couple of hours with nothing much left on all sides. Sure, there are smaller strategic weapons but once one side senses it's losing the battle the ICBMs still become an option.
If anything, it will be a cold war and I don't expect even that will escalate past a certain point. There are too many western corporations that have major operations in China and they would suffer huge losses if they suddenly had to pack up and leave. I remember on one trip further north (Suzhou I think) seeing a long line of foreign owned factories as far as the eye could see and I didn't recognise the names on many of them. Many were European.
Another thing to keep in mind is that most of the workers and staff in China are locals and they are definitely not silly like you think they are. They would be quite capable of continuing on with a stripped down version of the company to produce the same products for China only. Meanwhile the west would suffer a huge reduction in living standard making much more expensive products, and even that would take years to ramp up to full production.
I reckon western corporations will lobby their countries' leaders to shut up and leave things exactly as they are. It's just not worth the upheaval simply because we disagree with how China runs it's country.
