2015年CRI UN China Peacekeeping Exhibition（在线收听）

The celebration of a milestone. For the past 25 years China has been working with the United Nations to build peace and security around the globe.

And kicking off this week-long exhibition put on by China's UN mission- Ambassador to the United Nations Liu Jieyi says the timing is significant for the world's governing body.

"This is a special year for the United Nations. A year of the 70th anniversary of the organization. It is a time for stocktaking and also for forward looking."

And that's exactly what this photo exhibition hopes to achieve. Dating back to 1990, some 64 paintings and photos hang from 6 foot high dividers in a subterranean section of the UN's New York headquarters.

Some 30 thousand Chinese men and women have served in 24 peacekeeping missions over the past 25 years. And taking a guided tour of the exhibit- the UN's Undersecretary General for Communications and Public information Christina Gallach- says it's vital to honor the 10 Chinese men and women who lost their lives in the line of duty.

"It is important that we are all aware of the sacrifices that are made and how necessary is it to have quality troops contributing to the ever more demanding peacekeeping landscape."

China is currently ranked 9th when it comes to total UN peacekeeping contributions. And despite nearly 3,000 troops currently engaged in UN operations China's President Xi Jinping pledged at this year's United Nations General Assembly to go further.

As well as a planned $1 billion donation to the UN peace and development fund, China vows to train 5000 foreign peacekeepers and up its own permanent peacekeeping force to 8,000 troops.

Critics say this is a bid to exercise soft power but China's ambassador to the UN Liu Jieyi says these peacekeepers work for the international community.

And with China being the biggest contributor of troops from the UN's permanent Security Council members- he says they are just setting a precedent.

"We would hope that all countries would follow the example of the current big troop contributing countries and contribute to the UN peacekeeping operations."

The ambassador describes this renewed commitment to the UN as Chinese peacekeeping 2.0. With the hope that this new push will have a lasting success in ending global conflicts.

For CRI, I'm William Denselow at the United Nations in New York.