Yet despite their frustration with Pyongyang, however, investigations in Dandong by The Sunday Telegraph last week suggest that the Chinese still prefer the devil they know. North Korea, even with its endless bluster and war threats, remains a country with which it can work, and represents a crucial buffer against what China sees as an American attempt to "encircle" it. If the regime collapsed, China would either be forced to take over the running of the country, or risk the possibility that it is subsumed into South Korea, bringing pro-western forces right to the Chinese border.