They are exercising direct power because they have to. We aren't because we can't, yet (though if we had to I think the right might be surprised at the level of support we have in places they don't expect.)

But direct action weakens the party using it and has to be used carefully. Plenty of empires have used it sparingly and saved themselves. Plenty of Revolutionaries have used it and cast themselves into nothing. I don't think the US can use it well enough at this point, they're already too weak. All it will take is a field loss, or Europe (let's face it, the French, they're the ones with the nukes.) to directly face them and escalate all the way, and the whole thing will fall apart.

China would prefer another decade of the international order. Not because they aren't communists but because they like to be sure of victory, and there's a certain laziness of will stemming from the aftermath of the GPCR. They're unlikely to get that and they will, eventually, be forced to act, dragged kicking and screaming into the head of the new Eastern Bloc.