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Seong Hyeon Choi

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.
Published 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.


“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.
“The result is likely to be more conflicts, and these conflicts are likely to have even graver impacts on civilians as states abandon long-established norms.”
A total of 58 multilateral peace operations were active in 34 countries or territories worldwide in 2025 – three fewer than in 2024. Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe both hosted 18 missions, followed by the Middle East and North Africa with a combined 14, the Americas with five, and Asia and Oceania with three.
Nearly 73 per cent of personnel were deployed with just five missions, four of them in sub-Saharan Africa, the report said.
Responding to an inquiry from the South China Morning Post, SIPRI said China was the second-largest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping, accounting for almost 24 per cent of the global body’s peacekeeping budget. At first spot was the United States, with about 26 per cent. China’s financial share had increased “substantially”, by 5 per cent compared to the previous budget cycle, SIPRI said.
China contributed personnel to nine United Nations peace operations last year. The largest deployment was to the UN Mission in South Sudan, where China ranked as the sixth-largest contributor, with 874 uniformed personnel – mainly military – deployed as of December, according to SIPRI.
Claudia Pfeifer Cruz, a senior researcher at SIPRI’s peace operations and conflict management programme, said China’s participation in peacekeeping operations contributed to efforts to “project an image of itself as a responsible major power”. This aligned with expectations that permanent members of the UN Security Council contribute more, given their “special responsibility” for international peace and security.
“China contributes significantly more uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping than the other permanent members of the Security Council. This allows China to argue that it is not only paying a substantial share of peacekeeping costs, but also putting personnel on the ground,” she said.
“Together, these financial and personnel contributions support China’s broader claim that it supports or upholds multilateralism and contributes to global stability.”
China’s expanding share of UN peacekeeping funding comes amid a deepening financial crunch, driven by major donors failing to pay their assessed contributions in full or on time.
In July, UN peacekeeping operations faced a shortfall of US$2 billion – more than 35 per cent of their budget for 2024-25. Several were forced to make deep cuts to personnel numbers as a result.
The SIPRI report said multilateral conflict management and peace operations were “under severe pressure”, stemming from “increased geopolitical tensions, self-interested or transactional politics, and related financial cuts”.
The report cited recent moves by the US under President Donald Trump’s administration, which was “no longer willing to sustain the multilateral system”, while China and the European Union were “unwilling or unable” to replace it.
This had resulted in the UN Security Council’s inability to reach the necessary agreement to address new agenda items, it said.
No new peacekeeping operations have been established since 2014.
SIPRI said these cases included the expected termination of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon by the end of this year because of pressure from the US, and the failure to transform the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti into a UN-led and UN-funded peacekeeping operation against gang violence because of opposition from China and Russia in the Security Council.


“These tensions have made it more difficult for the Security Council both to authorise new peace operations and to agree on the mandates of existing ones,” Pfeifer Cruz said.
“These cases show that the current challenges facing peace operations are not only primarily about competition between the United States and China, but about wider political divisions, [especially] among major powers.”
Pfeifer Cruz said the collapse of multilateral conflict management was “not inevitable”, with widespread support evident for UN peace operations in principle.
“However, to sustain multilateral conflict management, states will need to go beyond expressions of support – they will need to provide predictable funding and create enough political space to enable effective multilateral responses.”


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


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


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

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}SIPRI says Beijing’s participation in such UN missions helps ‘project an image of itself as a responsible major power’

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