After the US President Donald Trump and the Chinese President Xi Jinping held a two-day meeting in President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last week, China seems to have hardened its stance against North Korea. An editorial came out in the state-owned government newspaper Global Times, which warns that the Chinese military would react with force if Kim-Jong-Un’s nuclear activity adversely affects areas in the North Eastern border of China. The editorial says, “China has a bottom line that it will protect at all costs, that is, the security and stability of northeast China…..if the bottom line is touched, China will employ all means available including the military means to strike back….By that time, it is not an issue of discussion whether China acquiesces in the US’ blows, but the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will launch attacks on North Korean nuclear facilities on its own……If by any chance nuclear leakage or pollution incidents happen, the damage to northeast China’s environment will be catastrophic and irreversible.”

While the editorial is not a representative of the views of the Chinese government, its communist party affiliation certainly makes it a very much relevant one.

The levels of tensions are very high with regard to the upcoming North Korea’s sixth nuclear test as US armada approaches the Korean peninsula. Some political analysts are speculating that the United States might launch an attack on the country’s nuclear facilities after the sixth nuclear test. Many see the Chinese article as a disguised warning to North Korea against further provocation.