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Demanding the PLA to go marching to Iran’s aid of course would be silly but it’s clear Iran is suffering a severe deficit in their air defense and are very much in a vulnerable position if no one steps to help them in that area at least. It’s not going to stretch the US empire all that much if they decide to simply start wrecking havoc on Iran with B2 bombers. I don’t think anyone who doesn’t already hate China is going to be upset if they start sending Iran Pakistan level military aid.
They’re most likely giving them everything they can plus intelligence support. Exposing that to the public or diplomatically threatens a significant chunk of soft-power they can continue to use.
Could you explain what “soft power” you’re referring to here exactly?
The massive industry base that the west has in China that has been used to build productive forces, as well as the diplomatic power that they use to align and support resistance factions. Example of this would be this: https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/wjbzhd/202407/t20240723_11458790.html#%3A~%3Atext=The+most+important+consensus+from%2Cis+the+agreement+on+establishing
Neither of these are exactly “soft” power, I think you’re misinterpreting the term somewhat.
Soft power isn’t so much to do with “diplomatic” power, but mainly the ability to more subtly influence others through positive attraction, such as through culture, religion, arts, film, music, fashion etc (such as Hollywood films acting as propaganda for US capitalist ideas, even when not made to explicitly do so). And in all honesty this is arguably one of China’s weakest ways of projecting itself overseas, compared to the west. I’m just struggling to see how that really ties into the discussion here.
soft pow·er
noun
a persuasive approach to international relations, typically involving the use of economic or cultural influence.
Everything I described falls under that, with their history of being the most level-headed economic player and growing more and more advanced by the day helps them out in their diplomacy. If you want an example that fits more of your definition, then I would point to the massive amount of brain-drain from the United States to China. I also mentioned productive forces. There is no misunderstanding here.
https://www.intelligentliving.co/why-chinese-scientists-leaving-us-stem/#%3A~%3Atext=By+2021%2C+a+striking+67%2Cworld's+scientific+expertise+is+centered.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-13/mother-of-all-bombs-afghanistan
This is older and was before China was leading the top 20 academic journals. They aren’t so weak when they are successfully draining and using their “soft-power” to attract the brightest minds to their nation. They would lose a lot of this if they were to directly intervene or deploy in Iran against the United States.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3314949/us-brain-drain-set-gather-pace-academics-seek-posts-outside-trumps-america
This one is more recent.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an example of China using soft power.