China will set up Asia's largest peace-keeping civil police
training center in Langfang, a small city near Beijing, a senior
Chinese police officer announced in Langfang on Monday.
The announcement was made by Gao Zaicun, Vice-President of the
Academy of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force (ACPAPF), in a
briefing to Jean-Marie Guehenno, UN Under-Secretary-General in
charge of peace-keeping operations, here on a visit to the training
center.
Gao said the center will be built in the ACPAPF and the Chinese
government has approved the infrastructure construction layout.
The training center will cover an area of 13.56 hectares with floor
space of 17,000 square meters. With a total investment of 160
million yuan (about 19.35 million US dollars), the center is
expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Capable of training 250 police officers at one go, the center will
become the biggest of its kind in Asia, Gao said.
China first approved the sending of civil police officers to
participate in UN peace-keeping activities in 1998, and in August
2000, the "China Peace-keeping Civil Police Training Center" was
officially established in the ACPAPF.
Focusing on English language, driving and shooting skills, the
center has already trained 251 police officers, of whom 159 passed
the selection examination organized by the United Nations.
According to a senior official in charge of foreign affairs at the
Ministry of Public Security, there are 69 Chinese police officers
taking part in UN peace-keeping operations in east Timor, and
another 15 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, some of whom hold
high-ranking positions such as divisional head and district
head.
Guehenno said China has played a "critical" role in UN
peace-keeping operations, and proposed that the peace-keeping
police should learn more about legal systems and border
administration on top of the three basic skills of language,
driving and shooting.
Guehenno also visited the site for the new training center.
(Xinhua News
Agency August 19, 2002)