China.org.cn | September 23, 2020
Xinhua News Agency:
At the U.N. commemorative ceremony of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers held on May 29 this year, a female Chinese military officer received the honorary certificate of the U.N. Military Gender Advocate Award. As we know, China dispatched a large number of female medical workers as part of its peacekeeping medical team, and there is a female infantry squad in the South Sudan peacekeeping infantry battalion. Please introduce some details about the female Chinese peacekeepers. Thank you.
Luo Wei:
There are many female journalists participating in this press conference today, and I would like to answer the question. A writer in the former Soviet Union wrote a documentary book called The Unwomanly Face of War, mainly about Soviet women in World War II. In China, we all know that, in ancient times, Hua Mulan joined the army in place of her aged father, and today there are female peacekeepers working for the people. These stories are well-known to the public. Today, all the positions in the UNPKOs, female soldiers are also playing unique and important role in promoting gender equality and protecting women's rights, and even in preventing and managing conflicts and promoting peaceful development.
China firmly supports the Women, Peace and Security Agenda of the United Nations and implements the UNSC Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security by action. Over the past 30 years, the Chinese military has sent more than 1,000 female officers and soldiers to participate in UNPKO. Currently, we have 85 female soldiers performing peacekeeping tasks at the U.N. headquarters and multiple missions, mainly participating in medical support, liaison and coordination, mine sweeping and explosive ordnance disposal, patrol and observation, promotion of gender equality and protection of women and children.
This journalist mentioned the deeds that led to the award of a certificate of honor by the United Nations. I will give you a brief introduction. The female soldier who was awarded the honorary certificate is Major Xin Yuan. She was assigned to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) last October as a senior mine clearance staff officer of the Combat Engineering Office and is also the only female officer to be in charge of mine sweeping. Her main job is to undertake mine sweeping planning, supervising and managing troops' mine sweeping operations. After arriving in the mission area, the first task she received was to organize and implement a humanitarian mine sweeping mission. In order to complete this task with a high standard, Xin took risks in going into the minefield with a mine-sweeping squad. She acquired first-hand information and formulated a thorough plan, which was completed 34 days in advance and swept more than 1,500 square meters of minefields. Her work has also received special awards from UNIFIL. This year, on the International Day of UN Peacekeepers on May 29, she received the honorary certificate of the United Nations Military Gender Advocate Award. Xin is a young female soldier born in the 1990s, and is also the mother of a two-year-old child. As far as I'm concerned, her deeds vividly showed the spirit of brave and dedication of contemporary Chinese female peacekeepers.