It’s hard to know whether Prof Tiberghien is saying that this was a true success or just that it went better than he had feared.  His statement that “The announced U.S.-China clash has somewhat receded” leaves me wondering.

Re North Korea, I see another poster arguing that China feels that it needs it as a buffer to US forces in South Korea.  If the USA wasn’t willing to cross the frontier of China during the Korean War, when it was hugely more powerful than China, it would take a true paranoid to see it wishing to do so in future.  If China is really worried about an attack, North Korea is the bigger threat.   From the start of the North Korean regime in the late 40s, it ruling dynasty has tended to treat its allies with almost as much contempt as its enemies, and we should not rule out the possibility that its recent missile tests are being conducted as much or more to intimidate China as any other country.