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. In a report on multilateral peace operations in 2025 released on Monday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said that 78,633 international personnel had been deployed with UN peace operations by December 31 – some 49