China has become the second-largest economy in terms of GDP with the largest total trade volume. China has also become a major economic partner of African countries. Accordingly, the talk about and expectation for China to play a bigger role in regional security issues are quite reasonable — despite different points of view and even some criticism. But I would argue that China's contribution in African security issues is under-recognized while its future role is over-expected.

There are two kinds of categorizations about engagements in security areas. The West would like to narrowly categorize security contribution only as military intervention. Though military means might be necessary in some cases, security issues should be addressed by broad means. Economic and diplomatic means are actually of special significance in addressing security issues.

The last decades have seen China participate more and more in security governance in Africa. China has been a major contributor of UN peacekeeping missions in Africa. According to statistics, China by the end of 2015 had dispatched approximately 30 thousand peacekeeping troops under the UN framework. China is the very country that has dispatched the largest number of peacekeeping troops among the P5. China's financial contribution amounted to 6.64% of the total budget of UN peacekeeping missions, making the country the sixth-largest contributor. China's engineering teams have constructed and reconstructed 11,000 kilometers of roads and more than 300 bridges, removed more than 9,400 mines and other types of explosive devices, provided more than 149,000 medical treatments, and transported more than 1.1 million tons of materials and equipment.

Though more accurate statistics for China's peacekeeping mission in Africa are not available, it is known that a big proportion of the missions had actually been conducted in Africa. For instance, by the end of 2015, China had provided troops for 7 missions of all the 9 UN missions. They are MINUSMA (Mali), UNMISS (South Sudan), MONUSCO (Democratic Republic of Congo), UNAMID (Darfur), UNOCI (Cote Devoir), UNMIL (Liberia) and MINUSCA (Central Africa) respectively.

It is also Africa that has witnessed the transformation of China's peacekeeping mission. Before 2012, China's participation was mainly in providing logistic support. In 2013, China provided security forces for the first time in a peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali. In 2014, China dispatched infantry troops as peacekeepers for the first time, for a UN mission in South Sudan.

Since 2008, China has dispatched ships to combat Somali pirates under the UN framework.