China's Supportive Attitude To U.N. Peacekeeping Operation Regime After The Cold War

Along with China's growing participation in multilateral security cooperation activities, Scholars, too, have increasingly displayed much interest in China's relationship with multilateral security regimes. Some scholars divide China's participation history into three stages: The first stage (1990~1995) as a time of"cautious participation"; The second stage (1996~1999) as a time of"active participation"; the third stage (2000~present) as a time of"proactive promotion". Some scholars argue that China's participation in multilateral security cooperation efforts represents a form of"conditional multilateralism". Some have already argued that China's policy in the realms of regional multilateral security exemplifies such"conditional multilateralism". How, then, can we characterize China's attitude towards global multilateral cooperation regimes? In other words, is China's participation in global multilateral security cooperation efforts linear or conditional? If China's participation pattern does not display linearity, then it can be concluded that China's participation is a form of"conditional multilateralism".China's first actual participation in UN peacekeeping activities occurred in 1989. From 1989 to December of 2006, China's attitude towards UN peacekeeping activities displays palpable variations.China's attitude during the first period (from November of 1989 to December of 1994) can be characterized as"standard support". Verbal statements issued during this time express China's support towards the UN peacekeeping regime, but in terms of actual involvement, the number of participated categories and dispatched personnel was comparatively little. China's attitude during the second period (from January of 1995 to July of 1998) can be characterized as"passive support". China participated in almost none of UN's peacekeeping activities. Verbal statements issued during this period propose adjustments in UN policies and emphasize the issue of development, rather than peacekeeping. The third period (from August of 1998 to September of 2003) displays a"resumption of support". Although the number of dispatched personnel and participation categories were relatively small, China started to participate in new peacekeeping categories. Statements issued during this period express renewed support for the UN peacekeeping regime. The fourth period (from October 2003 to December of 2006) displays"active support". The scope and number of actual participation surpassed those from the past three periods. Verbal statements issued during this period expresses support for the peacekeeping regime and call on other nations to actively participate in UN peacekeeping efforts.Using the first period as a comparative standard, an observation of China's attitude towards UN peacekeeping activities from 1989 to December of 2006 shows that the second period was an era of passive support, while the fourth period was an era of active support. China's attitudinal change can be chronologically listed in the following manner:standard support passive support resumption of support active supportAs we can see from the result of this study, China's attitude towards UN peacekeeping regime does not display a linear progression. Thus, in concern to the question of how can one define the characteristic of China's attitude towards UN peacekeeping activities, this study concludes that China's attitude reflects a form of"conditional multilateralism".