Brave death for peace

The terrorist attack that killed one and injured four other Chinese peacekeepers in Mali on Wednesday should be strongly condemned and the perpetrators brought justice.

A total of 17 Chinese peacekeepers have sacrificed their lives since the 1990s when China joined UN peacekeeping missions. Among the five permanent UN Security Council members, China now has the largest peacekeeping team abroad and the expenditure China will undertake for UN peacekeeping missions in the next three years will account for 10.2 percent of the world body's total expense for this purpose, ranking second.

The terrorist attack in Mali did not seem to be targeted at Chinese peacekeepers in particular, but rather at the UN.

For those who want a chaotic situation in the African country, UN peacekeepers whose mission is to maintain peace are the "largest enemy".

Developing countries such as China and India have gradually replaced developed countries to become the backbone of UN peacekeeping operations in recent years. China announced last year the establishment of an 8,000-personnel standby peacekeeping force, more than half the force the UN hopes to organize as a reserve.

That an increasing number of Chinese soldiers are sent to the most turbulent regions to make contributions to world peace on behalf of China, with some losing their lives, should win the respect of all people in China and indeed the rest of the world.

China's growing contributions to world peace through the UN peacekeeping operations also testify to its accelerated integration into the world system as a responsible power and its willingness to shoulder more global responsibilities.

However, China's undertaking of such responsibilities has been interpreted by some in the West as its "geopolitical ambitions". Those holding this distorted view should think carefully about why Western developed countries have reduced their personnel presence and expenditures for UN peacekeeping missions.