Multilateralism and cooperation roads to peace

What began with participation as an observer group to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization 30 years ago has become a commitment to maintain peace in troubled and disaster-affected areas as part of the UN peacekeeping mission.

From the five military observers dispatched to the UNTSO in April 1990 to contributing more than 40,000 person-times to 25 UN peacekeeping operations, and from a 400-strong engineering unit of the People's Liberation Army dispatched to Cambodia in April 1992 to six units of the Chinese peacekeeping force passing the UN assessment and being elevated from Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System level 2 to level 3 in 2019 and 2020, the journey has been long, eventful and a learning experience.

On the 30th anniversary of joining the UN peacekeeping mission, China can claim some credit for helping maintain global peace, not least because it contributes the largest number of troops to UN peacekeeping missions among the permanent UN Security Council members and is the second-largest donor to the UN fund.