We could have shown those Chinese that our new president is a man to be reckoned with and that for the next four years they will have to live with our global hegemony, however much it galls them. This is a ridiculous fantasy. There is no reason whatever to suppose that threatening the Chinese would have done any good. The Chinese government would probably have chosen to suffer any punishment we could plausibly threaten if the only alternative was to apologize for their error and give in to our demands. Making threats doesn't demonstrate toughness.
Small children do a lot of threatening.
This is both funny and annoying, but it doesn't impress me with her toughness. Nor is it tough to make good on a threat if doing so doesn't change anyone's behavior. If we had tried to bully the Chinese into returning out crew the effort would almost certainly have failed and we would have looked not tough but impotent. Every parent knows how foolish indiscriminate threatening can make you look. I mean it.