A recent report made the statement that China wants the Korea situation to remain the status quo. They are worried about an increased American influence in the region. China, secretly, wants the US to fail in negotiations so it can boost itself up as the champion of denuclearization. China, as expected, denied the information contained in the report. The part of the report that made me laugh was: "China opposes economic sanctions on North Korea because it fears sanctions would cause instability." Talks in Beijing will resume again shortly. The US is putting more pressure on China to help resolve the issue. However, China appears to be in no hurry to put a clamp down on N. Korea, which would lend credence to the report.
We can expect that the Chinese government will apply "Art of War" tactics as they prepare to overtake the US as the worlds next superpower. Of course, I don't want to see instability in Korea anymore than they do, but for different reasons.