Is it the beginning of some kind of cold war led by China? The primary purpose of these bilateral trades isn't only to cut costs in my opinion, and China probably is doing its best to lessen the dominance of the US dollar over the world economy by initiating these trades with different nations, they know that other countries will follow suit knowing they can do it to reduce costs and to become a bit more independent when it comes to using a currency for international trade.
I wonder how will things be if USD isn't the leading currency of the world and isn't used for the pricing of almost everything that you see or buy locally or internationally either through the internet or in real life.
I immediately thought that China may have something up its sleeve when I read the OP and when I had read your post, I agreed with your opinions. The US and China are not friends and some would say there is some rivalry in their relationship.
China may very well be leading some sort of silent boycott against the USD when it comes to international trade. I also think China is obviously trying to weaken and undermine the dollar in international trade and it seems to be working as what country wouldn’t jump at the opportunity of doing business with China or anyone else and paying not in the USD but in your local currency? I wouldn’t fault any country if it bites.
In having multiple trading partners where the USD won’t be used for payment for trade, China could be steadily and slowly trying to take away the relevance of the dollar from the international market. If that ever happens, we should be watchful on what currency would try to step in and replace the dollar as the leading currency in the world stage.
China and the United States are not friends and it is unlikely that they will ever become. They are ideological opponents, that's a fact. BUT !
I recommend studying the structure of the Chinese economy, and you will understand that although the USA and China are not friends, they are forced symbiotics!
The causes of symbiosis are very broad.
For example, it is unprofitable for the United States to produce cheap goods within the country, more precisely at the price of Chinese ones - due to higher wages and taxes, it is impossible to produce them in the USA. And the population is already accustomed to "penny" small things for life.
On the other hand, China is the largest consumer of technology from the US, and the US is profitable because China is absolutely dependent on them, and will constantly pay.
Symbiosis is beneficial to China in that it has a huge and rich market! Look at the US share of China's exports!! All the rest combined do not consume so much in monetary terms! We have already talked about technologies - such technologies will not be supplied to China by India, for example, or Brazil! Pr rogue countries, such as Russia and Iran, it makes no sense to talk at all ...
From the point of view of politics - yes, China is the "opposite political pole", but this pole has a high influence in regions where the US is weak, and the US does not need to spend efforts to restore order or change the situation - Xi himself will do everything so that the US does not worry .. Because - SANCTIONS, which China is very afraid of.
Therefore, all this hysteria with "give up the dollar" is just a beautiful game of China, with its "not intelligent servants", but no world conspiracy