China’s state propaganda machine swung into action on Monday to dampen online comments after Beijing condemned North Korea’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, which the isolated state said was of an advanced, “missile-ready” hydrogen bomb.

“Shut down all comment across the board on the North Korean announcement that [supreme leader] Kim Jong Un ordered a hydrogen bomb test, and related news items,” the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda czars said in a directive to news editors leaked and posted online by the U.S.-based China Digital Times website.

‘Join forces to curb North Korea’

But Xia Ming, a political science professor at the The City University of New York, said China, Russia and the U.S. need to work together.

“No country has a hope of resolving this on their own,” Xia said. “And if the U.S. hopes to bring China and Russia on side, it’ll have to be ready to make some concessions.”

“The only effective way to deal with this is for the three countries to maintain a three-way dialogue on the North Korean problem, and join forces to curb North Korea,” he said.

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