UN General Assembly

This year marks the 70th anniversary of both the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the establishment of the United Nations. It is also the deadline for UN member countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) they agreed to in 2000.

The objectives of the UN include maintaining peace and security and helping with poverty reduction and development around the world. As Africa faces greater challenges than others in achieving these goals, the UN has played a particularly critical role in maintaining peace, eliminating poverty and advancing development in the continent. China, as one of the five perment members of the UN Security Council, too has made a large contribution.

Lion's share

After the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, African countries saw a wave of multiparty democracy, which triggered one of the largest movements for political transformation since gaining independence in the 1960s. On one hand, the movement promoted transition to democracy in Africa, while on the other, it also created a breeding ground for the revival of African tribalism, or local nationalism, in several African countries. This resulted in political unrest in these countries, with coups, civil wars and tribal conflicts bringing grave sufferings to local people.

The UN has deployed a series of peacekeeping operations, making important contributions to peace and security in Africa. Over half of the 40-odd UN peacekeeping operations around the world after the Cold War were in Africa, such as the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola, the United Nations Operation in Somalia I and II, and the United Nations Operation in Mozambique.

Of the current 15 UN peacekeeping operations, seven are in Africa. The UN has sent 7,000 peacekeepers to Africa, 70 percent of the total number of peacekeepers deployed around the world.

It is true that in some African countries, such as Somalia and Rwanda, peacekeeping operations have been mired in controversy with some peacekeepers accused of child sex. But overall, the UN's peacekeeping operations in Africa have been of great positive significance for the stability of the continent and the formation of African security mechanisms after the Cold War.

China, as a responsible country, has always promoted the UN Security Council's resolutions on African peacekeeping operations in line with African interests and respect for African wishes. China has gradually increased the apportionment of UN peacekeeping operation expenses. It has also actively participated in peacekeeping operations in Africa, fighting pirates, preventing proliferation of weapons, and in post-conflict reconstruction.

China in action

China formally joined the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations in 1988. The next year, it sent civil observers to UN peacekeeping operations in Namibia for the first time. In 1990, China sent military observers to the Middle East, marking the People's Liberation Army's first infantry participation in UN peacekeeping operations. In December 2002, for the first time, China sent an organic military unit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From 2011 to 2012, China contributed 3.93 percent of overall UN peacekeeping costs, ranking the seventh contributor in the world. Since 1990, China has sent 3,000 peacekeepers to Africa, and participated in 15 UN peacekeeping operations there. Currently, China has its peacekeepers in eight peacekeeping missions in Africa. Recently, it sent police personnel to Mali and troops to South Sudan.

Since the end of 2008, China has sent naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and near the Somali coast for protecting ships carrying humanitarian aid from pirates, and participating in a multinational military operation against pirates.

Since December 26, 2008, the Chinese navy has wrapped up escort missions for more than 3,400 Chinese and foreign vessels. It has rescued vessels attacked by pirates 22 times, and taken over escort missions for nine vessels attacked or hijacked by pirates. China's naval convoy has successfully conducted joint escort missions and joint exercises with foreign armed forces. All this has helped combat and reduce pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia. 

Meeting development goals

In the past 70 years, the UN has carried out numerous projects in Africa through its subsidiaries, making important contributions to Africa's economic development, poverty alleviation, and improvement of education and public health care.

In September 2000, the UN Summit introduced the MDGs, a set of eight anti-poverty targets to be reached by the end of 2015. The UN has been working with governments, civil societies and other partners to draw up a post-2015 development agenda focusing on sustainable and inclusive development. These goals have also played an important role in guiding African governments formulating their own development strategies and poverty reduction targets.

China contributes to the implementation of the MDGs through trade, investment, engineering contracting and development assistance cooperation in Africa. This has led to nearly 6 percent economic growth in Sub-Saharan African countries in the past decade, making the region one of the fastest growing in the world.

Stronger China-Africa economic and trade relations have enabled African countries to diversify the sources of their foreign investment. They have helped enhance Africa's autonomy to decide its own development path and increase jobs and tax revenue in Africa. Bilateral cooperation has also helped train a large number of African professionals and introduce suitable technologies. According to Martyn Davies, a South African scholar on China-Africa relations, Africa's development has a symbiotic relationship with China's investment and trade activities on the continent.

In May 2014, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended the plenary session of the 24th World Economic Forum on Africa, marking the first time a Chinese leader attended the event. Li said in a keynote speech that China and Africa together have more than 2.3 billion people. Strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation enhances the well-being of both and promotes balanced development of the world economy.

The mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides has enabled nearly one-third of the world's population to benefit from economic growth and improved the living conditions in Africa. This has contributed to promoting the balanced development of the world economy and overall progress of human society. 

On the occasion of the 70th UN anniversary, UN members will need to carry forward the unfinished business of the MDGs into the post-2015 development agenda. Meanwhile, all emerging countries, including China, need to share their development experiences with African nations to achieve the largest inclusive growth in the world.

(The author is a senior researcher of the Charhar Institute and senior research fellow of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)