China leads a peacekeeping op

The UN announced the first-ever Chinese led peacekeeping operation.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Major-General Zhao Jingmin as the new Force Commander for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO), the first time that the world body has had a Chinese national head one of its missions.

This syncs with Chinese public statements to use peacekeeping as a way of increasing its profile with governments and people directly (like with a hospital). The public diplomacy angle has been stated repeatedly, perhaps most clearly when they voiced their intent to up their contribution to the Lebanese PKO to increase their profile in the Middles East (as well as in Europe).

As China builds its expeditionary capability and while building prestige and influence, how exactly is the US improving its image by forcing democracy at the barrel of a gun?

One thought on “China leads a peacekeeping op

  1. China’s has ingratiated itself in Africa as well by maintaing a hands off policy towards internal politics. On one hand they are attempting to use PKO as a means in and on the other hand they simply turn their backs to slaughter when business opportunities take precedent.Indeed it is a sad commentary that we look worse in the world’s eyes, and the real kick is what can we really say about it? Our moral soapbox has little range these days…

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