Its new deal with Vietnam and its fresh tariff threats issued to many other countries seem designed to reduce China’s role in their supply chain. Countries that had hoped to stay out of the new cold war now fear they are being forced to pick a side. To appease the world’s biggest market, they must anger the world’s biggest trader.

China said BRICS does not seek confrontation or target any country after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a new 10 percent tariff.

The group of emerging economies—including Brazil, Russia, India and China—has long sought to present itself as a multilateral counterweight to a U.S.-dominated world order.