China & North Korea & USA

China has to be really careful how it reacts to the North Korean missile tests. In my opinion, North Korea is never going to be a credible threat to the US, because before it does, Japan or South Korea will strike it down. But the US could goad North Korea's leadership (of one) into a macho strike on China, thereby using North Korea, which already considers China a sell-out, as a lever against China.

Imagine this scenario. The US continues to hype up the threat that North Korea has on the US Pacific Coast (total hogwash), and then gets China to issue increasingly strong statements against North Korea, thereby leading to an escalation in tension, which can be manipulated by a few choice string-pulls of the CIA when it comes time to cut China down to size.