South China Morning Post reported on December 16, 2017, that at a conference on the crisis in the Korean Peninsula in Beijing recently Shi Yinhong, Professor of International Relations at Renmin University who also advises the State Council, warned “Conditions on the peninsula now make for the biggest risk of a war in decades.” According to him Trump and Kim Jong-un were locked in a vicious cycle of threats and it was already too late for China to avert it. At best, Beijing could stall a full-blown conflict. He added: “North Korea is a time bomb. We can only delay the explosion, hoping that by delaying it, a time will come to remove the detonator.” Shi Yinhong also said hopes for peace could not rest on Kim and Trump, and China and Russia should work together to argue against war.Wang Hongguang, former Deputy Commander of the Nanjing Military Region, said “It is a highly dangerous period” and warned that war could break out on the Korean peninsula at any time from now on until March when South Korea and the United States held annual military drills. He said "Northeast China should mobilise defences for war.” Yang Xiyu, Senior Fellow at the China Institute of International Studies affiliated with China’s Foreign Ministry, said conditions on the peninsula were at their most perilous in half a century, and added “No matter whether there is war or peace, regretfully, China has no control, dominance or even a voice on the issue.”

A week earlier Jilin Daily, official newspaper of the Jilin province, published a full page of advice for residents on how to respond to a nuclear attack. A document purportedly from telecom operator China Mobile about plans to set up five refugee camps in Jilin’s Changbai county also surfaced online last week. Wang Hongguang said the Jilin Daily article was a “signal to the country to be prepared for a coming war” and that China was worried about the threat North Korea’s frequent nuclear tests were posing to unstable geological structures in the region. Nanjing University professor Zhu Feng said that no matter how minor the possibility, China should be prepared psychologically and practically for “a catastrophic nuclear conflict, nuclear fallout or a nuclear explosion”. He asked “Why do we always act like ostriches? Why do we always believe a war won’t occur?” Zhu Feng added “What China needs is a sense of urgency about its declining influence in strategy related to the peninsula and the way it brings down China’s status and role in East Asian security issues.” He also said Kim Jong Un’s failure to meet Chinese envoy Song Tao during his trip to Pyongyang last month was a “humiliation” for China.