China's peacekeeping and rescue efforts in Haiti and other places help to boost China's international image, said Ma Xiaojun, an international relations professor at the Central Party School's Institute for International Strategic Studies.

Ma Xiaojun, international relations professor at the Central Party School's Institute for International Strategic Studies

"As a responsible and peaceful great power, China should and must make its own contributions to UN peacekeeping operations," Ma said during an exclusive interview with China.org.cn. "Missions usually take place in conflict areas, especially in some African countries. The environments there are always bad and tough."

Eight Chinese peacekeeping officers were killed in the Haiti earthquake Jan. 12. Four were officers of China's 125-member peacekeeping force in Haiti. The others were part of a team sent by the Ministry of Public Security for consultations.

Of the five permanent members on the UN Security Council, China has contributed the most peacekeepers to UN peacekeeping missions. "This shows China's significant contribution to the world's peacekeeping cause," Ma said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and some senior UN peacekeeping officials have highly praised China's peacekeeping operations more than once.

The majority of Chinese peacekeepers are from the People's Liberation Army's corps of engineers and field hospitals, while the rest are from riot and civilian police forces. They have been sent to dozens of mission areas, such as Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan and Haiti. In all, more than 15,000 Chinese have been deployed since 1992.

China has sent five batches of policemen to Haiti since 2004, when the UN first began peacekeeping operations in the country. Many of them were deployed more than once. Among the eight peacekeepers killed in the earthquake, some were on their second mission there, and some had also been to Afghanistan and Kosovo.

China's rescue efforts after the Haiti earthquake are also highly evaluated, Ma said.

Even though China has no diplomatic relations with Haiti, it was quick to send relief aid, with a search-and-rescue team and materials arriving less than 20 hours after the earthquake struck. "China is a responsible big country," Ma said. "We have built bridges and roads in mission areas, carried out medical aid and assisted in safeguarding social security and community construction. China's international image is built through every little work we have done."