The CCP is very timid and risk averse. Pushing proxies to do the heavy lifting was the CCP style. With no proxies, the Chinese malign campaign collapses
The CCP is very happy to watch their suborn proxies (i.e. colonies) grind themselves into nothingness.
Russia is the prime case study.
However, China had Venezuela to project deadly activities straight into the U.S. while Iran and its proxies were available to kill Americans and to provoke regional bloodletting to grind down American resources.