"Since joining the UN peacekeeping operations 28 years ago, the Chinese military has actively performed the responsibility of a big country, effectively boosted the peacekeeping capabilities and fulfilled its solemn commitment to maintaining world peace with concrete actions," said the head of the Peacekeeping Affairs Office of the Chinese Ministry of National Defense on the eve of the 16th International Peacekeepers Day in an interview with PLA Daily.
China has participated in 24 UN peacekeeping operations since 1990, and has contributed more than 37,000 peacekeepers with 13 Chinese soldiers having laid down their lives on the peacekeeping frontline. At present, Chinese military personnel totaling 2,507 people are on missions with 2,419 peacekeepers in 13 peacekeeping contingents deployed in seven UN mission areas and 88 military observers and staff officers working with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
"The significant enhancement of overall national strength has enabled China to provide stronger support for UN peacekeeping operations," said the head of the Peacekeeping Affairs Office. President Xi Jinping made six commitments to support UN peacekeeping missions when addressing a UN peacekeeping summit in September 2015. At present, China has completed the establishment of a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops and two permanent peacekeeping police squads and completed their registration at the UN peacekeeping capability readiness mechanism in 2017.
In the 8,000-strong Chinese peacekeeping standby force, there is a certain percentage of engineering, transportation, and medical units, including three engineering companies, two transportation companies, four Level-II hospitals, two medium-sized multi-purpose helicopter detachments and two transport aircraft detachments .
The Chinese military has trained nearly 1,000 foreign peacekeepers by holding international peacekeeping training courses and sending experts and instructors abroad.
China’s first peacekeeping helicopter detachment was deployed to the UN peacekeeping mission area in Darfur, Sudan in 2017.
Part funds from the China-UN Peace and Development Trust Fund have been used to support UN peacekeeping operations. The UN report "Improving Security of United Nations Peacekeepers: We need to change the way we are doing business" released in January 2018 was also funded by the China-UN Peace and Development Trust Fund.
Not long ago, to express its thanks to the Chinese military for its strong support for peacekeeping operations, the UN launched a series of articles, graphs and videos on its official website that reflect China’s contributions to the UN peacekeeping missions.
Since joining the UN peacekeeping operations 28 years ago, peacekeepers from China have built and restored more than 14,000 kilometers of roads, cleared more than 9,800 landmines and various types of unexploded ordnance, treated more than 200,000 patients, transported 1.35 million tons of supplies and facilities of various types with a total mileage exceeding 13 million km.
Speaking at an interview with Chinese reporters before his trip to China for the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, "We see the role of China not only in the direct contribution of peace-keepers, but also in the contribution to the discussions we will have this year on how to improve peace-keeping, to make peace-keeping more focused and safer for the peace-keepers." China is now the second largest financial contributor to peace-keeping and one of the countries with a very meaningful number of peacekeepers on the ground, Guterres said, adding that there is a very strong commitment to peace-keeping from China.
