There is a considerable amount of debate surrounding how much pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping is receiving from the hard-line communist party apparatus.  Some believe Xi Jinping is actually in conflict with the party apparatus and most of the old guard of Hujintao.
There is a line of logic that states the current Chinese rhetoric is not Xi Jinping’s outlook, but rather the position of the communist party controlling the narrative and trying to reassert itself to cause diversion from the tenuous economic position of the Chinese economy.  Whichever perspective might be true, China just officially announced a position that is rather concerning.  According to the latest official communist party position:

♦If North Korea strikes first, China promises to remain neutral.
♦If The U.S. strikes first, China promises to fight on the side of the DPRK.

CHINA – […] Beijing is not able to persuade Washington or Pyongyang to back down at this time. It needs to make clear its stance to all sides and make them understand that when their actions jeopardize China’s interests, China will respond with a firm hand.
China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten US soil first and the US retaliates, China will stay neutral. If the US 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.

China opposes both nuclear proliferation and war in the Korean Peninsula. It will not encourage any side to stir up military conflict, and will firmly resist any side which wants to change the status quo of the areas where China’s interests are concerned.
It is hoped that both Washington and Pyongyang can exercise restraint. The Korean Peninsula is where the strategic interests of all sides converge, and no side should try to be the absolute dominator of the region. (read more)

One thing is increasingly obvious. China has full control over North Korea and is using the DPRK as an offensive weapon to keep the United States and all Western powers from an influential economic footprint in the region.  It is time for Western media to drop the charade and admit China has full control over North Korea.
The DPRK is China’s most valuable trade/economic weapon.
This is why President Trump needs to economically confront China now; with severe and punishing trade and economic sanctions, urgently. It needs to happen sooner rather than later. The U.S. should move to cripple the red dragon before Xi Jinping is able to select the economic timeline and geography to drop the mask and instruct North Korea to pull the trigger of hostilities.
President Trump can force the panda mask to fall from the red dragon if he hits the Chinese economy quickly and substantially. If he doesn’t, the mask will eventually fall at a time chosen by the communist regime in Beijing.  The mask will fall because the Chinese economy is on a natural path to contraction.
If President Trump doesn’t trigger the Chinese economic contraction, it will contract naturally at a later date – and with that contraction the deployment of North Korea’s aggression will begin, bigly.
Remember in China the outlook is not Western.  They have an entirely divergent way of looking at conflict.  They accept no alternate position; you either think “their way” or your thinking is wrong.  You either acquiesce to “their terms” or there are no terms.  When dealing and negotiating with China everything is a zero-sum outlook.
Historic Chinese cultural policy, the totalitarian control over expressed political sentiment and diplomacy through silence, is evident in the strategic use of the space between carefully chosen words, not just the words themselves.
China has no cultural or political space between peace and war; they are a historic nation based on two points of polarity.  They see peace and war as coexisting with each other. China accepts and believes opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.  Flowing between these polar states is a natural dynamic to be used -with serious contemplation- in advancing objectives as needed.
Peace or war. Win or lose. Yin and Yang. Culturally there is no middle position in dealings with China; they are not constitutionally capable of understanding or valuing the western philosophy of mutual benefit where concession of terms gains a larger outcome.  If it does not benefit China, it is not done. The outlook is simply, a polarity of peace or war.  In politics or economics the same perspective is true.  It is a zero-sum outlook.
Delaying the economic conflict serves no value.  Take them head on and let’s go…