Just got home and was channel surfing and on MSNBC one geopolitical commentator interestingly said that with IsAF having total air superiority over Western Iran and Tehran itself,the Iranians have to ask themselves,"billions of dollars to support Palestinians,Houthis,Hezbollah ec" and Iran itself is near defenceless -why haven't we Iranians taking care of ourselves FIRST??"China's policy of non-entanglement(especially with the incompetent and ungrateful) and taking care of China /Chinese FIRST is absolutely correct-long may it continue.
Let's be honest here, Iran can spend the entire national budget on air defence/forces and still not be able to defend its air space.
They simply don't have the technology to do it.
Proxy forces exist as an alternate way to strike your enemies when you are outmatched in the conventional domain. If you don't spend on these proxy forces, you have neither defence nor offense, no options to play when your enemy strikes you.
China's peace in late 20th century is kept by nuclear weapons and residual reputation from the Korean war. Just because you don't anything, doesn't mean people won't push your shit in, that's not how the world works. Just watch the Conservatives in Israel doing everything they could to sabotage the nuclear talks.