Ahead of International Women's Day, women and children in a refugee camp in South Sudan received free medical examinations and treatment, provided by Dr. Sun Xiaoluan and her colleagues, who are Chinese female peacekeepers.
Female peacekeepers like Sun play an increasingly important role on UN peacekeeping missions. Among the 30,000 peacekeepers dispatched by China since it first participated in UN peacekeeping missions in 1990, nearly 1,000 have been female.
The female peacekeepers were deployed in Liberia, South Sudan, Mali and other countries, and include not only medical personnel, but military observers, infantry and police officers.
In every infantry battalion dispatched by China, there is a 13-soldier female squad. The largest group of female Chinese peacekeepers are deployed in Gao, Mali, and is composed of 19 females peacekeepers, who perform military tasks together with male soldiers.
In June 2016, the Ministry of National Defense jointly held a training course for female peacekeepers from different countries with UN Women, the first of its kind held by China.
The UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial held in London last September called for more women in peacekeeping missions.
China first sent female military officers abroad for peacekeeping operations in 2003.
