This is an awfully US-centered way of interpreting the comment, which completely misses the real play. The comment was made while visiting Australia, and this article is in Australian media. Furthermore, China isn't looking to get into outright war with the US, for all the reasons listed in sibling comments.

What Ma (/China) is really doing is capitalizing on the fear in US allies that the US will now hold back military support. This is a negotiation happening with Australia, to gain trade terms favorable to China. China is reminding Australia that they are within China's sphere of influence, and that it is Australia who must work to stay on good terms with China.

For context, I'm a USian and think Trump is duplicitous and incompetent, but sympathize with why he was elected. The problem with the TPP was the same problem with our entire political landscape - it mostly consisted of prudent trade terms, but packaged with a bunch of corporate-pushed corruption. It's designed to be against our own interest to defect (game theoretically), but people are getting quite fed up with the scam.