China lifts peacekeeping budget share amid warnings bodies like UN may be sidelined

AdvertisementChina’s militaryChinaMilitaryChina lifts peacekeeping budget share amid warnings bodies like UN may be sidelined

SIPRI says Beijing’s participation in such UN missions helps ‘project an image of itself as a responsible major power’

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Seong Hyeon ChoiPublished: 4:15pm, 25 May 2026Updated: 4:31pm, 25 May 2026

China was the second-largest financial contributor to the UN peacekeeping mission after the US last year, with its share rising “substantially” as geopolitical tensions increasingly paralysed multilateral peace operations, according to a Swedish think tank.

In a report on multilateral peace operations in 2025 released on Monday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said that 78,633 international personnel had been deployed with UN peace operations by December 31 – some 49 per cent less than in 2016.

“It was the the lowest level since at least the year 2000”, the report said.

AdvertisementPublished ahead of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers on May 29, the report noted that while the numbers had been in decline over the past decade, 2025 saw the sharpest year-on-year drop in that period, sliding by 17 per cent. 07:49SCMP Explains: China’s growing role in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa

“If things continue in this way, we could see a dramatic weakening of multilateral conflict management and the near-complete sidelining of institutions like the United Nations due to a perfect storm of funding, political and geopolitical factors,” said Jair van der Lijn, director of SIPRI’s peace operations and conflict management programme.

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