MINURSO’S PEACEKEEPERS: National Day of People’s Republic of China

1 Oct 2022

MINURSO’S PEACEKEEPERS: National Day of People’s Republic of China

On 1 October, MINURSO raised the flag of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) at the Mission HQ to mark the country’s National Day.

The PRC holds a permanent seat on the Security Council and their first military observers joined a UN mission in 1990. In the early 2000s the PRC began to deploy lager numbers of uniformed personnel, including specialized capabilities such as formed police units, engineers, and field hospitals. In 2015,  for the first time the PRC a full infantry battalion to South Sudan.  Nowadays, it is the second biggest financial contributor to UN peace operations budget, a top ten Troop Contributing Country (TCC) to UN Peacekeeping and the largest TCC amongst the permanent five member of the Security Council.

The PRC is currently the  largest TCC in MINURSO(10 UNMOs) , with 30 percent of its personal women [Link].

Ten military observers from China serve currently in MINURSO, among them three women.

The National Day commemorates the founding of the People's Republic of China proclaimed in 1949 in Beijing. Since then, the flag-raising ceremony at this capital’s landmark has been the most important official act on that day.

Xièxiè nǐ, zhōngguó !