China’s Leaders and Citizens are Losing Patience with North Korea

China is generally considered the only major ally of North Korea. But whatever the government in Beijing might think of its troublesome neighbor on the other side of the Yalu River, many Chinese people have developed a rather cooler attitude. For some time now, China’s official discourse has framed its relation with North Korea as comradely and brotherly. More than six decades after the Korean War, however, this international friendship cemented by “blood and lives” appears to be much less appreciated on the Chinese side.