Remember someone once from US State Dept saying that dealing with the Chinese when they are angry was a bit like a Peking Opera... lots of screaming, shouting and threats, but not much more.
The threat to strike Australia is a bit ridiculous - with Pine Gap and half of the US defence industry having branch offices here, it'd be tantamount to an attack on the US itself.
But what about the smaller nations?
Sooner or later we're going to reach `call your bluff' point in this dispute.
Face will be lost, and what happens then?
Short, sharp ugly little scrap between some South East Asian claimant and China?