Calls for the Chinese government to do more to accept refugees into the country have met with waves of criticism among the public who cite Europe’s…

Calls for the Chinese government to do more to accept refugees into the country have met with waves of criticism among the public who cite Europe’s immigration crisis and China’s lack of ability as major reasons

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sent out a Weibo post on Tuesday, World Refugee Day, after a charity event, paying respect to a total of 65.6 million people globally who are forced to be homeless as well as people who support and are concerned about refugees

A comment critical of the UNHCR’s call has been reposted over 80,000 times. The top comments under that Weibo post are all critical. One read, "stop creating an atmosphere that we should accept refugees, it’s revolting. If we don’t have that kind of national prowess, we shouldn’t randomly receive refugees."

"There are still a lot of Chinese people who live in poverty and can’t pay for medical bills. Shouldn’t we solve our own problems first?" reads another. In recent years, there have been many calls for China to do more to show responsibility as a big country, including on the refugee issue

On whether China should openly welcome refugees, the Communist Youth League wrote a public article on WeChat on Thursday, saying that the refugee problem was not caused by China and the Chinese government has constantly been providing humanitarian aid, as well as being willing to keep communicating with Western countries, and the core solution to the refugee problem is to keep these regions developing and stable

The view is shared by many. The core arguments are that China is still developing itself, has its own issues and is unable to take on more burden

Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that the reason Chinese society has reacted so vehemently to this issue is because the advantageous policies enjoyed by foreigners in China is harming Chinese society

"Refugees’ impact in a host country is stronger than normal foreigners who enter and exit a place. The refugee crisis in Europe since 2015 has provided a destructive example for the world," he said

He said if refugees from regions with unstable politics and bad safety records come to China in increasing numbers, it’s a lot of pressure on China’s safety and even stability

At a conference at the UN’s headquarters in New York last September, Premier Li Keqiang spoke on the refugee issue, saying China has always held the issue in high regard and actively participated in solving the problem