Britain ready to roll out red carpet for Chinese

As China has emerged as a significant economic and military power on the world stage, it is set to become the third-biggest contributor to the United Nations behind Britain and France, and has announced a dramatic rise in its manpower contribution to UN peacekeeping operations.

President Xi Jinping pledged a $1 billion donation to the UN for peace and development and $100 million for the African Union to help its own peacekeeping efforts. And a permanent standby force of 8,000 personnel is to be set up for UN peacekeeping operations, he said during his speech to the UN General Assembly late last month.

In addition, China will start training 5,000 potential peacekeepers from other member states.