In the future, if drones or missiles flying from Iraq or Afghan or Ukraine hit an air base or missile plant in China. That person who is launching the drone or missiles obviously got paid by the US to do this. How would China respond? If China respond by attacking that country, US will use that country as a proxy against China.
I can see this hypothetical scenario played out in the future. This is one way to drag China into a conflict, and eventually larger war.
If China still played cool and reluctant to respond, what if the missile hit a larger shipyard like Bohai.