Expert Interpretation: "Six Highlights" of Chinese Military Peacekeeping Operations' Commitment
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 18 (Reporters Zhang Mimim and Li Yun) The State Council Information Office released on the 18th the white paper "Chinese Army's Participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations for 30 Years", which systematically introduced a series of important achievements China has made in fulfilling relevant commitments in the past five years. Results.
Cai Hui, an associate professor of the School of International Relations of the National University of Defense Technology and a senior instructor of the Center for Peacekeeping Affairs of the Ministry of National Defense, accepted an exclusive interview with reporters from Xinhua News Agency.
The white paper says that on September 28, 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the UN Peacekeeping Summit and announced six commitments to support UN peacekeeping operations.
The Chinese government and military have resolutely implemented the decision and deployment of Chairman Xi Jinping, must believe in words and deeds, and fulfill relevant commitments with practical actions, achieving a series of important results.
"In the past five years, the composition of China's peacekeeping forces has expanded from a single service to multiple services and arms. The mission type has been transformed from support and support to comprehensive and multi-functional. The operational objectives have extended from stopping armed conflicts to building lasting peace, and peacekeeping capabilities have been further improved." Cai Hui Said that the specific performance is "six bright spots."
One is to complete the establishment of a peacekeeping standby force.
The rapid deployment of peacekeeping operations can gain opportunities for peace and time for lives.
The Chinese military strongly supports the establishment of the UN peacekeeping capacity standby mechanism and enhances the rapid deployment capabilities of peacekeeping operations. At present, it has completed the registration of the peacekeeping standby force with a scale of 8,000 and 28 units of 10 professional forces with the United Nations, including 7 second-level standby units and 6 units. A three-level standby force.
China has become the country with the largest number of UN peacekeeping standby forces and the most complete types of units.
The second is to send more guarantee personnel to participate in UN peacekeeping operations.
Since the United Nations peacekeeping summit in 2015, the Chinese military has dispatched 25 batches of peacekeeping engineers and medical teams totaling 7001 people to participate in peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Darfur, Mali, and Lebanon.
In August 2020, the Chinese army has 6 engineering units with 1,188 people and 4 medical units with 199 people, which are performing UN peacekeeping missions.
The third is to complete the task of training peacekeepers for various countries.
In the past five years, 20 batches of professional trainings have been organized, including protection of civilians, senior officials of peacekeeping missions, peacekeeping instructors, peacekeeping military professionals, and female peacekeeping officers, and more than 1,500 peacekeepers have been trained for more than 60 countries.
The Chinese army has carried out demining assistance projects and trained more than 300 deminers for Cambodia, Laos, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zambia, Zimbabwe and other countries.
In addition, the Ministry of Public Security of China has trained more than 1,000 police officers from many countries.
The fourth is to provide free military assistance to the African Union.
The main demand for peacekeeping operations is in Africa.
In order to support African countries in improving their own peacekeeping and stability capabilities and solving African problems in an African way, the Chinese military actively implements US$100 million in free military assistance to the African Union and supports the construction of the African Standing Army and the rapid response force for crisis response.
So far, the Chinese army has delivered the first batch of military aid equipment and materials to the African Union, dispatched a team of military experts to train African personnel, and reached an agreement with the African Union on the next stage of military aid arrangements.
The fifth is to dispatch the first peacekeeping helicopter unit to carry out the mission.
In August 2017, the Chinese army deployed its first helicopter detachment of 140 people to the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNFID) and deployed 4 medium-sized multi-purpose helicopters, mainly responsible for troop projection and operations. Tasks such as support, search and rescue and evacuation of personnel, and logistical supplies have provided important support for the UN peacekeeping operations in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The sixth is to establish a China-United Nations Peace and Development Fund to support United Nations peacekeeping operations.
To better support the peace cause of the United Nations and promote multilateral cooperation, China has established the China-United Nations Peace and Development Fund.
From 2016 to 2019, the China-United Nations Peace and Development Fund carried out 52 projects in the field of peace and security, using approximately 33.62 million US dollars of funds.
Among them, 23 projects involve support for UN peacekeeping operations, using about 10.38 million U.S. dollars in funds, including the overall planning of UN peacekeeping operations, African peacekeeping capacity building, peacekeeper security, and livelihood projects in Sudan's Darfur and Mali peacekeeping operations.