China’s Potemkin Peacekeeping

The CCP is using its increased U.N. peacekeeping presence to shift international norms about human rights.

By and
34

Eager to assuage concerns about its growing power and portray itself as a responsible world leader, Beijing used its turn as president of the U.N. Security Council last month to publicize China’s role in U.N. peacekeeping in Africa. Beijing emphasizes that China’s contributions to U.N. peacekeeping are intended to “defend world peace, contribute to global development and safeguard international order.”

In reality, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has used U.N. peacekeeping to cloak and facilitate the mercantilist extraction of natural resources from Africa, while gaining valuable deployment experience for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and attempting to shift international norms in a direction hostile to human rights.

Today, approximately 2,400 Chinese troops serve as part of U.N. peacekeeping missions, and about 85 percent of those troops are in Africa. This represents a sharp increase since 2000, when China contributed fewer than 100 troops in total. 

What explains this significant Chinese interest in U.N. peacekeeping?

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
34
By and
Comments (34)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Kurt Von Fuchs

    The United Nations is an aspirational organization. All members of the strata council including the United States ignore the rules when it's not in their own best interest. This does not give China an excuse it's just that everyone does it

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Johntadian

    China may be slowly accumulating African rights to strategic metals, building artificai islands to spread military power, promoting digital espionage and running gulags to supress minorities; but we have pride month, defunded police forces and critical race theory coming to our schools. What we worry?

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Narwhal

      How many of the nearly 18,000 police forces in the US have been defunded as of this week?

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Johntadian

        Are you saying there wasn’t (isn’t) a concerted effort to do just that?

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Narwhal

          How many of the nearly 18,000 police forces in the US have been defunded as of this week? Please cite examples.

          Collapse
          1. Avatar photo
            Johntadian

            https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/08/13/at-least-13-cities-are-defunding-their-police-departments/amp/

            Collapse
  3. Avatar photo
    Jason Gibson

    Enlightening

    Collapse
  4. Avatar photo
    George.Skinner

    The dirty little secret of UN peacekeeping is that it's been incredibly unsuccessful when it comes to ending or eliminating conflicts. About the best it's done is stop hostilities for a time until the combatants decide to resume. A big part of the problem is the UN itself: its sclerotic command and administrative structure doesn't work and puts peacekeepers in harm's way. The nature of Security Council decision making prevents more muscular interventions by peacekeepers when needed to secure a situation. The nadir of the process was seen in the 1990s, with an ineffective intervention in Bosnia where years of bloody conflict ended only when NATO stepped in. Then there was the Rwandan genocide, where lightly armed UN peacekeepers were led indifferently and UN bureaucracy failed to respond to a devolving situation. Since then, most western nations have given up on the process. Poorly-disciplined troops from developing nations have been employed instead, and we've seen scandals in places like Haiti as a result. If China is using the remains of this process as an imperial foothold, it's probably time to put an end to the whole concept.

    Collapse
  5. Avatar photo
    Xaveria

    When I lived in Africa, most of the roads were unpaved, especially in the provinces of minority or opposition tribes. Unpaved roads have a significant negative economic impact -- not only do they slow transportation and trade, they wear down vehicles more quickly, making it more expensive to participate in the wider economy. The dust kicked up causes serious health problems, chokes up and kills computer systems, and damages the environment.

    All of these pot-hole-ridden dirt pathways lead down the single road which ran down that part of the country. Imagine a state the size and population of South Carolina, with only one two-lane road running down the middle, and that was the road, a long barely paved artery choked with ancient sedan taxis, each carrying ten passengers, and dangerously swaying minibuses crammed to bursting with people, goats and chickens.

    One day we made a trip down to the capitol, which I hadn't visited before. About halfway there, the priest took us a little out of the way to show us something. It was a newly completely highway. I don't mean a paved road, I mean a four-lane, immaculate asphalt jet black surface with a yellow paint ribbon perfectly laid down the center. There was no traffic on it whatsover.

    We gaped, astonished. It looked like new construction straight from the States, and not a cheap one -- it was cut out of very hilly country, travelling away from the main economic corridor. The priest grinned at us. He told us that the Chinese had just spent millions and millions of dollars to build it. Where does it even go? We asked, puzzled.

    Ah, he said, that leads to a very small village in the hills, where the President's mother lives.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Narwhal

      Where in Africa did you live? When?

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Xaveria

        Cameroon, in the 2000's.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Narwhal

          Thanks for clarifying. Africa is a massive continent.

          Collapse
          1. Avatar photo
            Xaveria

            It absolutely is, but I find that the majority of people I speak to think that Cameroon is Southeast Asia or some such, so I generally go shorthand :) I should probably say Nigeria -- people know Nigeria, and the Anglophone regions of Cameroon as very culturally linked.

            Collapse
  6. Avatar photo
    rlritt

    China has certainly increased its foreign presence in underdeveloped countries. I was in the Bahamas and saw a Chinese company building a soccer stadium. If there is a way to gain approval in underdeveloped country, I believe that would be the way to do it. Other than that, I'm not sure I understand the point of this piece. Is it the small military presence to protect their projects or the fact that they didn't participate in sectarian violence, but instead ran away?

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Narwhal

      Maybe a good way. Maybe not. Depends on the quality of the stadium over time and how much unnecessary debt was incurred to build it. I doubt they built the stadium for free.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        rlritt

        It was a while ago, but I believe it a project that they were doing for free, but it was probably in exchange for something.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Narwhal

          A free soccer stadium? Seems unlikely.

          Collapse
          1. Avatar photo
            rlritt

            They probably got something in trade. Fishing rights? Something. I asked my husband and remembers the sign saying this new stadium is a gift, etc. from a Chinese company. He was surprised when he read it.

            Collapse
  7. Avatar photo
    The Bell Tower

    As if the UN’s posture on human rights isn’t already a gigantic farce. Just ask Israel.

    Certainly I hope that the US and the western democracies take Mr. Bowman’s warnings and suggestions seriously, but Americans can’t even seem to muster the resolve to criticize China here at home. This is thanks to corrupt financial interests wedded to absurd historical masochism.

    In our Twittery ignorance, we have been conditioned to believe that the United States and capitalism are evil influences on the world stage, even as the influence of more capital drives our elites to turn their backs on the liberalism that got us here. As we retreat into our navel gazing stupor, the vacuum is filled by other world players.

    Oh, but I’m sure the moral relativists currently pockmarking our elite institutions like festering boils agree that Africa will be much better off under the thumb of the enlightened communists running the CCP than it ever was when evil Western liberals were manning the world stage.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Narwhal

      Always remember that the general assembly and security council are two very different things. Peacekeeping is controlled by the security council.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        The Bell Tower

        Undoubtedly but we still require the political will to stand up for our values - especially when the choices are hard.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Narwhal

          What do you think about the undermining of the UN by the Bush administration? How about the US response to the Second Great Congo War?

          Collapse
          1. Avatar photo
            The Bell Tower

            Do you mean Bush’s coalition of the willing?

            Collapse
  8. Avatar photo
    Narwhal

    The PRC’s increasing involvement abroad isn’t much ado about nothing. But, this article lacks some critical context.

    For example, the US currently has around 29 bases or outposts in Africa and more than 6,000 troops deployed there on a permanent basis. So, the US has more than twice as many troops deployed across Africa which are not under UN authority or oversight. And we have far more bases.
    https://theintercept.com/2020/02/27/africa-us-military-bases-africom/

    Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    Narwhal

    “As Beijing’s economic interests in Africa have grown, the CCP has shown an increasing desire to protect those economic interests with military deployments. In fact, Beijing established its first overseas military installation in Djibouti in 2017. China’s military ambitions in Africa, moreover, are not relegated solely to the continent’s east coast. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top U.S. military commander responsible for operations in Africa, recently warned that Chinese officials are actively contacting governments on Africa’s Atlantic coast to establish naval facilities.”

    Why is the PRC looking for basing rights for its navy along Africa’s West Coast? Here is a partial explanation:

    “China is the world’s largest buyer of iron ore with imports of over one billion metric tonnes in 2020. However, almost 60% of the ore is imported from Australia. In view of surging prices and soured relations with Australia, China is feverishly looking for alternative sources.

    One of these alternative sources is found in the mountainous region of Simandou in Guinea. The region holds huge reserves estimated at nearly 9 billion tonnes with a superior iron content of 65%. Analysts believe that the Simandou mine could produce as much as 150 million tonnes annually, which is equivalent to the 7% of the global production of 2.1 billion tonnes based on 2019 figures.”

    “With prices almost reaching a record USD 200 per tonne, China has a great motivation to bring prices to lower levels. Importing more than one billion tonnes per year, each dollar drop in price would thus result in more than one billion dollars in savings for China annually.”

    http://aeabc.org/china-to-expedite-simandou-iron-ore-mine-project/

    Collapse