An editorial statement in China’s state-run Global Times newspaper warned that China would not come to North Korea’s aid militarily if they launch missiles against the United States and the US retaliates against them.
While Global Times is nominally not the official mouthpiece of China’s ruling party, it is state run, and assumed to reflect government policy. This is believed to be a direct warning against North Korea starting the war.
At the same time,the editorial said China would intervene if the US attacked North Korea first, which may be an attempt by China to warn the US against starting a war either, at risk of getting into a much bigger war with China.
China has been pushing for diplomacy to resolve the situation, and expressed growing annoyance at the US claims that the Chinese could simply and readily resolve the situation unilaterally if they only wanted to. This appears to be one last-ditch attempt to prevent either side from attacking the other, warning that effectively they’ll not back the aggressor under any circumstance.
Why is the lede buried here? It seems to me the far bigger news is that China now warns fairly openly that it will not allow a US attack on North-Korea.
Of course the downside here is that we might see a replay of 50-53, when the US chose to ignore repeated Chinese warnings that they would intervene if the US advanced too far north. The result was a drastic escalation of the war when the Chinese actually followed up on their warnings.