140 Chinese peacekeepers return from UN mission in Liberia

Peacekeepers head to the airport terminal to meet with their families.[Jia Ce / Provided to China Daily]

A team of 140 Chinese peacekeepers landed in Hangzhou late on Sunday after completing a yearlong UN mission in Liberia.

The unit, mostly officers from the public security frontier corps in Zhejiang province, were deployed on March 11 last year.

During its mission in the West African nation, The 4th China FPU to UNMIL carried out 627 operations involved 16 cases of crowd control with more than 16800 person-time police force dispatched, according to Chen Dingwu, a senior official with the Ministry of Public Security’s Border Control Department.

"Dispatching peacekeepers overseas proves China's commitment and responsibility to world peace," Chen said. "Through their dedication, our peacekeepers have gained recognition from the UN, the Liberian government and the world. They are our diplomats in uniform."

The unit was the fourth sent by China to join the peacekeeping mission in Liberia.

Farid Zarif, special representative of the UN secretary-general, said in October that the unit's use of data in peacekeeping was the most sophisticated in all 89 peacekeeping forces in the world.

"China is the forerunner in information technology-driven peacekeeping," he said.

The unit received the UN Peace Medal of Honor on Feb 21 for their performance, becoming the fourth Chinese peacekeeping force to receive the honor.

"Disciplined, responsible, capable and innovative — these characteristics are the Chinese style of international peacekeeping," Chen said.

A fifth group of peacekeepers — another 140 officers — departed for Liberia on Friday amid heavy staff cuts in the UN peacekeeping mission, the Ministry of Public Security said.

Correction: The 4th China FPU to UNMIL carried out 627 operations involved 16 cases of crowd control with more than 16800 person-time police force dispatched.