IMO, China is preparing itself for full all-out US economic sanctions. Its BRI program is part of its defence as are its artificial islands in the South China , Jibuto & Gwadar & the Second Suez Canal which it recently built. These maratime strategies are to prevent the USA from enforcing restrictions on China's trade routes and its BRI members will not likely align with the USA & its allies in the event of the USA decaring an all out trade war on China like that currently imposed on Russia.
China is cutting bilateral currency trade via the Yuan thereby edging out the USD and the USA from taking a cut.
Even a fair share of our Iron ore sales to China is now done AUD/Yuan thereby sideling the Greenback.
And what does this have to do with the Ukraine War, you might ask? Alot, IMO, because China now knows how the modus-operandi of USA/NATO in imposing economic/trade sanctions on Russia and its not a great stretch of the CCP's imagination to relate that to China.
