Possible but unlikely IMHO. The most the Chinese did was harass US ships and planes. If they'll attack, they'll likely strike only Taiwanese assets. Taiwan isn't even recognized as a country, neither by the US nor the UN, so there will be some debates on what the president would be allowed to do to defend it as opposed to China striking an American aircraft carrier, which would be a declaration of war.
These days the US can control nuke sizes and delivery. Nuke the Chinese military and government with small nukes that don't hurt the general populace. The people are our friends in trade. It's not that they don't like freedom. They simply don't know how to implement it.
Yeah. Would be far less disastrous than the incendiary bombing of Japanese industrial zones during WW2, where the fire spread out to residential areas killing civilians.