China's position on this particular incident is just a reflexive defense of the concept of "no interference in other countries' affairs, regardless of how bad t

China's position on this particular incident is just a reflexive defense of the concept of "no interference in other countries' affairs, regardless of how bad they look" something which China strongly advocates for its own reasons, not for the benefit of NK. China's general attitude over the last decade or two has been a gradually increasing private irritation with NK's behavior and while China still tends to defend NK in public, these defenses seem more and more perfunctory as time goes on. There's a sense that while they value NK as a communist buffer state, the Chinese government has little love for the NK regime in particular, and wishes they'd get their act together.