The only question is when. If China believes we will continue to grow weaker and it will be easier if they wait, then they might wait.
Conflict is inevitable when a nation believes it has a window of oppotunity to further a vital national interest, and also believes the window is closing. That’s why Helmuth von Moltke started WW1 a century ago. War is also inevitable when a nation has a leader who, for whatever reason, good or bad, wants to have one. Which is why diplomacy failed in the late 1930s.
Everything else is negotiable.