China expanding association with UN peacekeeping from year to year

In April 1990, China sent five military observers to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. It also sent military personnel to formally participate in UN peacekeeping operations, and thus started its association with international peacekeeping missions.

Over the years, the Chinese military has expended its participation in UN peacekeeping operations, which has helped gradually optimize China's peacekeeping forces' structure and widen its geographical distribution from one-mission area to 11 mission areas. Also, the posts Chinese personnel occupy now extends from general officers to the commander of UN missions.

Over the past three decades, the Chinese military has expanded the overseas deployment of its forces from a single unit of observers and staff officers to an integrated force, and widened their deployment from unitary engineering personnel to engineering, transport, medical, security, infantry and land navigation personnel.

Besides, Chinese female military officers and observers have joined their male counterparts in such operations.

The year 1992 is a landmark in the Chinese military's peacekeeping mission, because in April that year, China's first "blue helmet" troops, a 400-member engineering battalion, went to Cambodia mainly to maintain roads and airports, build barracks, and help with other engineering support tasks. That was the first time China sent a non-combat force on UN peacekeeping operation, laying the foundation for sending other logistics support units on peacekeeping missions in the future.

China formally joined the first-level standby mechanism for UN peacekeeping operations in 2002, which meant keeping its troops and equipment ready for deployment in 90 days at the request of the UN.

In 2007, Major-General Zhao Jingmin acted as the commander of the UN mission in Western Sahara, becoming the first Chinese military officer to lead a UN peacekeeping operation. Four years later, in January, China sent a 155-member engineering team, a 70-member medical team and 170 security personnel to the UN special mission in Mali, with the security personnel being China's first such unit to participate in a UN peacekeeping mission.

In 2015, the Chinese military's participation in UN peacekeeping operations was further enhanced when it sent a 700-member peacekeeping infantry battalion to the UN mission in South Sudan. And in 2017, it sent its first land-based helicopter contingent to Darfur in Sudan on a UN peacekeeping mission.

The next year, China sent its first female military observer group to Congo on a UN peacekeeping mission, whose main duty was to conduct patrols in order to maintain peace in the dangerous border areas. In the second half of 2018, the UN command in Darfur got its first female Chinese staff officer.

In February the next year, China upgraded its five standby peacekeeping forces to the third-highest level－that is, upgrading all its 8,000 standby peacekeeping forces, as well as contributing the highest number of troops to UN peacekeeping operations.

By January this year, China had sent about 40,000 troops to take part in 25 UN peacekeeping operations, and 13 Chinese officers and soldiers had sacrificed their lives in such operations. At present, more than 2,500 Chinese peacekeepers are on the front line of UN peacekeeping operations across the world.

Among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China is the largest contributor of personnel to UN peacekeeping missions, with France being the second largest, although it has just 800 troops. In terms of UN peacekeeping fund sharing, China contributes 15.21 percent of the budget, making it the second-largest contributor.

Over the past 30 years, China has been continuously increasing its contributions to UN peacekeeping operations, both in terms of funds and troops. It has also put forward a blueprint for "building a community with a shared future for mankind and achieving win-win results for all", in order to enable the international community to maintain peace across the world.

China will continue to expand its participation in UN peacekeeping missions and strengthen pragmatic cooperation with the UN in standby forces, equipment, high-level consultations, mutual high-level visits and other fields to inject new impetus in peacekeeping, make the world more secure, and fulfill its due responsibility as a major country.

The author is a lecturer at the National Defense University of People's Liberation Army. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.