By Colleen Wong
Earlier this month, Albert Gerard Koenders, the UN Special Representative for Mali, praised China for the contributions its peacekeeping forces made in helping to ensure a smooth presidential election in Mali last month.
“The UN Secretary-General said that China and its peacekeeping role in Mali were very important, but now I would have to say, China's important work has exceeded expectations,”Koenders said at the time.
The mission to Mali represented a major shift in China’s peacekeeping operations. Specifically, whereas early missions had involved only logistical and medical personnel, in Mali China dispatched actual security forces to help maintain the peace. As Chen Jian, the head of the UN Association of China, told The Financial Times at the beginning of the mission, “This is a major breakthrough in our participation in peacekeeping.”
China has long faced criticism from the international community over its peacekeeping operations. Although China has stepped up its participation in peacekeeping missions since 2002, the international community has continued to demand more from Beijing in terms of peacekeeping. For instance, when visiting China in 2007, the (now former) UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, expressed his desire to see more Chinese involvement in peacekeeping efforts.
Read the full story at The Diplomat