It does show that the US(and likely Europe) hasn't internalized any of the lessons of the Ukranian war, either because they think its a one-off war with particular conditions and they still think they are beyond such a war and will steamroll everything, everywhere all the time.
they usually use western sat imagery though, there isnt alot of chinese sat imagery companies that provide outside of China because there isnt much of a market for it.
Labeling "kowtow" is an extreme strech or missunderstanding how China works. Showing such photo is provocative in China's view unless China is in an open conflict with someone. Regardless China's open objection to US war on Iran, China isn't in the conflict yet. If China officially stepped in like she did in Korean war, I am sure we would have live-streaming of US assets being blown up.
I mean, that is what US is doing as they had removed Iranian oil sanction to prevent oil price increasing out of hand..... while at war with them.
100% of tanker and AWAC loss could be attributed to lack of proper basing. In China's case, basing wouldn't be an issue, so only threat to these platforms would be from sniping by 5th generation fighters.
If this is true, then the implication is pretty profound. For example, there's speculation that the US wants to take control of Kharg Island, which handles 90% of Iran's oil shipments. Well, what is the US going to do if they control Kharg island? Are they going to stop Iranian oil from going out the strait of Hormuz? Isn't that completely contrary to the goal of preventing the price of oil from skyrocketing? Controlling Kharg island is not going to secure the strait of Hormuz.
What they want is for the revenue stream from the oil shipments to be going to Trump's Caymen Islands private bank account instead of to Iran.