Furthermore, would an American population really support -say- a nuclear attack on China because certain information was compromised, or because the lights went

Furthermore, would an American population really support -say- a nuclear attack on China because certain information was compromised, or because the lights went out in America for a few days ? A week ? Fat chance. Would such an attack stop the cyber attack ? Probably not. Disconnect from the internet ? Not an option for any trade-based nation, plus also unlikely to stop the cyber attacks. First lesson in international law - there is no international law, because the actors involved are sovereign and only prolonged warfare can -sometimes- dislodge them, at massive cost. So open violations of international treaties, even on large scale, are let go without consequences. Say, for example, something between legal discrimination (at minimum denial of religious freedom, article 2 UNHR) and religious genocide is happening in most/all muslim countries (with countries like Morocco and Turkey "merely" discriminating and Sudan, Pakistan and Bangladesh regularly being accused of large-scale state-sponsored religious genocide). And it's not like most of those countries are even a real military threat. For China the question may be simpler, of course. It is certainly, shall we say, "absorbing" a few of it's neighbors. Again, what are you going to do ?