In recent years, China has stepped up its contribution to UN peacekeeping operations, particularly in countries where doing so aligns with its strategic interests. The US must take action to reassert its leadership role in this space, not just to check Beijing’s growing influence, but to demonstrate that it is fully invested in bringing peace, security and stability to challenged regions.

In the summer of 2021, to mark the 50th anniversary of China’s entry into the UN, Foreign Minister Wang Yi boasted of China’s peacekeeping efforts, highlighting that the country had fulfilled its pledge to establish an 8,000-member standby peacekeeping force, participated in 29 former and ongoing peacekeeping operations, and contributed more than 50,000 personnel. Wang declared, ‘China has met its responsibilities for upholding world peace. Over the past 50 years, China has taken the side of fairness, upholding equality and opposing interference in other countries’ internal affairs, power politics and hegemonism’. He emphasised that China’s active involvement was a major departure from its longstanding policy of not participating in UN peacekeeping missions, which – from Beijing’s point of view –strategists and policymakers had underappreciated for too many years.

By most accounts, the international community widely appreciates China’s growing contribution due to the unprecedented demand for UN peacekeeping. Today’s peacekeeping missions are increasingly complex in terms of the scale and scope of their mandates. However, China’s expanding role in peace operations highlights its growing prominence within the UN. This development directly challenges the US’s strategic influence and its broader role as leader of the rules-based international order. It is essential to recognise that peacekeeping, stabilisation and large-scale combat operations are not mutually exclusive. Instead, peace operations should be viewed through the lens of strategic competition which the US government can use to its advantage while assisting populations in need.

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