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

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.“It was the the lowest level since at least the year 2000”, the report said.Published ahead of the UN-peacekeepers" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="133550" data-entity-type="event">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.07:49SCMP Explains: China’s growing role in UN-peacekeeping-missions" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="133548" data-entity-type="topic">UN peacekeeping missions in Africa“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.