China has responded to escalating tensions in the Korean Peninsula by threatening both North Korea and the U.S. According to Zero Hedge, China has told the U.S. that it will fight to defeat any attack the U.S. or its allies commit against North Korea if that attack is aimed at “regime change.” China told North Korea that if the U.S. responds to a North Korean attack that threatens U.S. soil, North Korea is on its own.
In a troubling repudiation of President Donald Trump’s demands that Beijing do more to rein in its bellicose neighbor, Beijing, through the state-owned media, cautioned the US president on Friday that it would intervene (militarily) on North Korea’s behalf if the US and South Korea launch a preemptive strike to “overthrow the North Korean regime,” according to a statement in the influential state-run newspaper Global Times.
"If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so," it said.
At the same time, the Chinese regime made it clear that its preferred outcome would be a continuation of the status quo, warning Kim Jong Un that it would "remain neutral if North Korea were to strike first." The article, cited by Rueters, reiterated calls for a diplomatic solution. However, the possibility of talks between the two sides was looking increasingly remote as both Trump and Kim continued to exchange threats of nuclear annihilation, with Trump clarifying Thursday that his earlier promise to respond with “fire and fury” should the North continue to threaten the US may not have gone far enough.
I should be noted that China has a history of not bluffing when it comes to the United States and the Korean Peninsula. When the U.S. invaded Korea, China advised the U.S. that if U.S. troops approached China’s border China would intervene. That is exactly what happened. The result: China fought the U.S. to a draw when China had barely emerged from its Civil War and the United States was the global hegemon.