That China has contingency plans on the books concerning the possible implosion of their starving communist gulag state of a neighbor certainly isn’t much of a surprise. China is North Korea’s last major economic and financial supporter, supplying the country with food, weapons, and energy, and headache-inducing, saber-rattling, off-the-wall, costly annoyance that North Korea may be for the Chinese, they are still fellow communists, after all — and that means covering their collective behind in the event of collapse and especially preventing any undesirable foreign influence from entering the region. (Hint: They’re talking about us/South Korea.) Via the Telegraph:

China has drawn up detailed contingency plans for the collapse of the North Korean government, suggesting that Beijing has little faith in the longevity of Kim Jong-un’s regime.

Documents drawn up by planners from China’s People’s Liberation Army that were leaked to Japanese media include proposals for detaining key North Korean leaders and the creation of refugee camps on the Chinese side of the frontier in the event of an outbreak of civil unrest in the secretive state.

The report calls for stepping up monitoring of China’s 879-mile border with North Korea.

Any senior North Korean military or political leaders who could be the target of either rival factions or another “military power,” thought to be a reference to the United States, should be given protection, the documents state. …

The report suggests “foreign forces” could be involved in an incident that leads to the collapse of internal controls in North Korea, resulting to millions of refugees attempting to flee.

It’s also no secret that China’s patience with North Korea has been growing particularly thin of late, brought on by their bizarre delusions of nuclear grandeur. Just last month, China was again finding it necessary to remind the NorKs that they would do well to toe the line on that front:

China said Thursday it will not permit chaos on its doorstep, in another thinly veiled warning to its wayward ally North Korea amid indications that the North is technically ready to conduct a fresh nuclear test.

“Peace and stability is in the immediate interests of China. We will by no means allow war or chaos to occur on our doorstep,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters, when asked about the possibility of a fourth nuclear test by North Korea.

The comments by Qin echo those of Chinese leaders, but were the strongest yet by the Chinese foreign ministry in response to recent reports that North Korea appears to have completed technical preparations for a nuclear test.