TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China is quietly building a network of refugee camps along its border with North Korea. The existence of plans for the camps, first reported by a news agency, emerged in an apparently leaked internal document from a state-run telecom giant that has apparently been tasked with providing them with internet services.
The China Mobile document, which has circulated on social media and overseas Chinese websites since last week, reveals plans for at least five refugee camps in Jilin province. The document says: “Due to cross-border tensions, the (Communist) party committee and government of Changbai county has proposed setting up five refugee camps in the county.”
It gives the names and locations of three such facilities: Changbai riverside, Changbai Shibalidaogou and Changbai Jiguanlizi. A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry declined to confirm the camps’ existence at a regular press briefing on Monday but did not deny they were being built. “I haven’t seen such reports,” Lu Kang as saying.
