China has consistently supported and actively participated in the peacekeeping operations of the UN, said Zhang Li, deputy director of the Peacekeeping Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense.

Zhang told more than 60 defense attaches from 43 foreign countries that China has deployed more than 4,000 military personnel in 14 UN peacekeeping operations since 1990.

Until August this year, there were a total of 852 Chinese military peacekeepers working in nine UN peacekeeping missions all over the world and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) at the UN headquarters in New York, including 776 peacekeeping officers and soldiers serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia and over 70 military observers and officers in UN peacekeeping missions and the UN DPKO.

When the first Chinese peacekeeping troops arrive in Sudan in the near future, China will have a total of 1,300 peacekeepers working in the ongoing UN peacekeeping operations, according to Zhang.

Zhang said in the past 15 years, six Chinese servicemen lost their lives in UN peacekeeping operations.

Over the past three years, Chinese army has also been active in expanding exchanges and cooperation with the UN DPKO and its foreign counterparts, Zhang said.

China has sent more than 100 officers to take part in training and exchange activities organized by the UN DPKO as well as foreign countries and organizations. Meanwhile, more than ten experts from the UN DPKO have been invited to China for pre-deployment visits, Zhang noted.

China has hosted or attended international seminars on peacekeeping affairs, Zhang said, noting that these exchanging activities play a positive role in expanding and improving the Chinese army's participation in the UN peacekeeping operations.

Zhang made the presentation on the participation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the UN peacekeeping operations to foreign defense attaches, with a purpose to promote exchanges between the PLA and the foreign defense attaches and to increase the defense attaches' knowledge of the PLA.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2005)