It was Obama that pivoted to putting China in the "big bad" portrait frame, though at the time scary foreigner wasn't an important part of the incumbents political strategy.
China has also relatively recently gotten a more hardliner leader, which is bound to sour relations with "the West" to some degree as he imposes weird restrictions on human rights and reverses the trend towards openness of years prior.
But the US now has an openly racist and explicitly nationalist (in US terms) president, so open conflict with the primary enemy was guaranteed from the start. For deep ideological reasons it is necessary for the current administration that there should be conflict with the rest of the world. With this sort of focus by the administration the media reporting is bound to follow to some extent.
China has also relatively recently gotten a more hardliner leader, which is bound to sour relations with "the West" to some degree as he imposes weird restrictions on human rights and reverses the trend towards openness of years prior.
But the US now has an openly racist and explicitly nationalist (in US terms) president, so open conflict with the primary enemy was guaranteed from the start. For deep ideological reasons it is necessary for the current administration that there should be conflict with the rest of the world. With this sort of focus by the administration the media reporting is bound to follow to some extent.