Angels of Steel

China’s female peacekeepers play an important role in UN missions

- Xia Yuanyuan

Born in the 1990s, Xin Yuan is a modern woman with impressive accomplishments. She is a mother of a two-year-old child, a brave soldier, and the recipient of an honorary certificate from the UN for being an outstanding peacekeeper.

Xin is not the only female Chinese peacekeeper playing an increasingly important role in UN peacekeeping missions. According to the white paper on China’s Armed Forces in UN Peacekeeping Operations, released by China’s State Council Information Office on September 18, over the past 30 years, among the 40,000 peacekeepers dispatched by China since it first participated in UN peacekeeping missions in 1990, nearly 1,000 have been women.

The female peacekeepers were deployed in Lebanon, Liberia, South Sudan, Mali and other countries, and include not only medical personnel, but also military observers, infantry and police officers.

Guardians of peace

As a peacekeeper, the aim of each mission is to prevent and resolve conflicts as well as promote peace and development.

Xin was assigned to the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in October 2019. As a senior mine clearance officer of the Combat Engineering Office and also the only female officer to be in charge of minesweeping, her main job is to undertake minesweeping planning, and supervising troops’ minesweeping operations.

In order to complete this task effectively, Xin took a risk by going into the minefield with a minesweeping squad. After assessing the situation, she devised a plan and completed the sweep of more than 1,500 square meters of minefields well ahead of schedule.