The Chinese are literally, great tea leaf readers. They saw the November elections, and figure it may be likely that we will install someone with backbone, in January, 2017. Regardless, they can be certain that 0 is as good as it gets, for them.
They probably won’t go for an all out war, but I can definitely see them moving in on some disputed territories, knowing that they can get away with it.
If they’re using Sun Tzu’s Art of War as their guide, then all-out military war is the last resort; the philosophy there centers on “breaking (the) enemy’s resistance without fighting” and “taking the enemy’s country whole and intact”, especially through heavy use of espionage (moles and double agents given the highest consideration).