You will remember Bush junior words with the axis of evil, "You are either with us or against us".
A very powerful no nonsense sentence with very little wriggle room. This is hard power stuff and when a strong nation threaten, it is because they can. If you compare China, they have the same but 'soft power' using threat of decoupling trade or imports but basically the model is identical in theory.
I still reckon Trump just opened up the floodgate of decoupling with China and in fact I would argue that at least Trump is a businessman rather than a ideologue and it is all about the deal, not a clash of political ideology which the democrats are pursuing. Second Trump term may differ in the approach. As reported in the news today, China's 'Go West' towards the less populated of their western region is where they are seeking to internalize local consumption and try to maintain the Belt initiative.
