The visit to Canada scheduled this month by a three-member Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) delegation should add more substance to a subtle shift under way in Beijing's policy on UN peacekeeping operations. China says in its defence White Paper, China's National Defence in 2000, that it has "participated actively in UN peacekeeping activities". In fact, it has traditionally lagged far behind the UN Security Council's four other permanent members - France, Russia, the UK and the USA. The White Paper notes that Beijing had deployed 522 military observers, liaison officers or advisors on UN peacekeeping missions up to the time of its publication in October 2000. This was supplemented by 800 engineers sent to Cambodia in two batches and 15 civilian policemen sent to East Timor.
展开▼
