China, Iran, and the cost of dispersing naval power

Would a China-Iran agreement and Chinese presence in the Persian Gulf be strategically significant?

It can demonstrate peacetime influence, but dispersing forces undercuts China's ability to concentrate them in a war.

China's ability to mass forces is presented as one way of offsetting Western technological advantages. A partnership with Iran and a presence in the Persian Gulf can display reach and influence during peacetime. Sending forces far from their main theatre, however, divides that mass into smaller detachments that could be isolated and defeated in war. The same deployment can therefore be sound political signalling in peace while weakening the concentration on which China might depend in a major conflict.