No way in hell is Argentina preferable to Iran lol. I would much rather have a country with a clear and unambiguous anti-american stance like Iran in BRICS than countries with foot in both camps like Argentina, UAE or Egypt.
Talking about foot in both camps, India is the elephant in the room. 99.9% in US camp.
The Pakistani generals have business interests in the US. Most of these generals retire in Western capitals.
China needs to understand that many of its would-be allies are either too weak or too much of pawns of the US to actually matter. Pakistan should have been cut off ages ago. Dalit is correct in noting that the country is basically run by generals who are groomed by the US and later retire there. Many of their extended families are born in the US.
The same dynamic is also true for many Latin American countries and corrupt Arab dictatorships like Egypt. The US is still much better at influencing countries abroad than China is and probably ever will be. The key reason is that the US offers unlimited immigration opportunities to rich Third World elites and they ultimately care more about their own enrichment than their own countries.
I don't think most Chinese people, including most elite Chinese, understand that.