Every time I read this kind of news regarding China, I always think that others don't have much to bring to the table, while China also don't want to bring too much to the table. All countries that can be considered close, I mean really close, to China geopolitically, most of them can be considered failed isolated states. Meanwhile China doesn't seem willing to really "go all in" helping them for many and somewhat obvious reasons. Besides reluctance to throw money into bottomless pit, China also seem not to put too much trust on alliance system.

While I understand China position regarding alliance, it is also a weakness vis a vis its competition with the US. Of course US alliance have their own drawbacks too. So I'm also not sure who has the better ways.