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By Suzanne McGee and Ross Kerber

(Reuters) -Investment manager Vanguard's new exchange-traded fund targeting emerging markets outside of China appears to have followed a push from the Missouri State Treasurer's office for products excluding Chinese stocks.

The product highlights a new front in the decoupling of economic links between the U.S. and China as a result of the trade war U.S. President Donald Trump has begun between the world's two largest economies.

Vanguard filed on May 30 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch the Vanguard Emerging Markets Ex-China ETF. Vivek Malek, Missouri's Treasurer, told Reuters the announcement came six weeks after a series of requests and meetings with Vanguard, a claim backed by letters and e-mails reviewed by Reuters.

Malek successfully pushed for the state's pension fund to divest from publicly traded Chinese stocks in December 2023 and also pressed for a China-free fund option for the state's $4.5 billion 529 educational savings plan in an April 14 letter to the plan's program manager working with Vanguard.

"I believe we moved the needle in the direction that helped them reach this decision," Malek said.

Vanguard did not directly comment on Malek's statements, citing quiet period restrictions on discussing fund products still under SEC review.

A Vanguard spokesman said the firm's goal is to offer investors of all kinds of lower-cost options.

Had Vanguard not filed for its ex-China ETF when it did, the firm risked losing its position as the main provider of investment products in the state's 529 plan, Malek said.

Next year, Missouri will be reconsidering which asset managers will be entrusted with those savings, and one of the conditions any firm must meet will be offering a fund that excludes Chinese stocks, Malek said.

MORE EX-CHINA PRODUCTS

Ex-China ETFs have been launched with growing frequency within the last three years, according to Morningstar, and Vanguard's ETF would bring the total to 13, four of which debuted in 2024.

Like other Republicans, Malek has been a critic of investments in China and made removing them from state investment portfolios a political objective.

In his April 14 letter, Malek pointed to economic, legal and geopolitical risks associated with Chinese stocks, adding these are "real, accelerating and incompatible with long-term fiduciary responsibility".

Malek's staff met with Vanguard executives in early May, according to e-mails reviewed by Reuters, ahead of a May 21 meeting of the board of trustees for the Missouri college savings plan, the agenda for which included discussion of other investment options excluding China.