There are better words for a conflict that's not currently active warfare. The US and China can disagree and take action that isn't mutually beneficial without it being a war. How we talk about things reflects how we think about them and limits the solutions we consider.
None of which changes the fact that there is a war. Not only are the two nations still involved on opposite sides of the Korean War, which has never concluded, but China routinely scrambled fighters and bombers to harass U.S. ships in international waters.
