So what does the US do about China now?

If the two unidentifiable/unidentified objects shot down over Alaska and Canada turn out to be Chinese-made and Chinese-deployed, as well as the spy balloon which even Beijing admits was theirs (though just a weather-tracking balloon, ho ho), it begs the question: what should happen now in terms of relations between the US and China? The trouble is in this globalised world the two countries are so interlinked that it's impossible just to cut them off. Trade between the US and China has actually gone up significantly throughout all this period, so the options are pretty limited for the Biden administration. In these dangerous times it's far better to be talking to your potential worst enemy than shunning them. But Beijing cannot be trusted to be telling the truth even when the truth is staring everyone else in the face. Piling on sanctions isn't going to work. Kicking out all Chinese "diplomats" in consulates and trade missions and other organisations dotted around the US will only lead to tit-for-tat retaliation by China. Expelling a few known Chinese intelligence officers from the embassy in Washington will likewise provoke similar action by Beijing. So it's difficult to know what Biden can do that will punish China without freezing relations with Beijing for the rest of his administration term. But here's a thought, and one for America's intelligence services to answer. What if Xi Zinping and Vladimir Putin have together concocted a secret plan which involves a twin approach to undermining the West: Putin persists with his invasion of Ukraine, despite early setbacks, knowing that the West will be obliged to continue rushing weapons and money into the country, massively reducing available stocks of weapons and munitions in the process, and Xi steps up spying operations against the US to raise deep concerns about national security vulnerabilities. My God, if that was their plan at the meeting between the two men on September 15 last year, then the West has been seriously caught in their trap. We know Putin and Xi vowed at that meeting to strengthen their strategic anti-West relationship and here we are five months later obsessed with two things: the draining of our national defence weapons inventories of rockets, tanks, air defence systems, artillery, shells, drones, ammunition, rifles etc etc and we are all on high alert for Chinese spy balloons. At just under $500,000 each, the US has already fired three Sidewinders to destroy the spy balloon and two unidentified objects. Perhaps, all part of the Putin/Xi plot to batter the US economy and embarrass Biden.