Clash of Interests US-China rivalry : The Iran war is becoming another arena in the US-China strategic rivalry. China need not enter the conflict; it can benefit from prolonged US involvement while conserving its own military, economic and diplomatic resources.
From Taiwan and the South China Sea to Ukraine and Iran, Washington is increasingly stretched across multiple theatres. China’s strategic advantage may lie not in fighting America’s wars, but in allowing America to exhaust itself in them.
The real contest, therefore, is one of strategic endurance. China does not have to defeat the United States in the battlefield; it may only need to ensure that the United States spends more of its power than China does.