China to become third-largest contributor to UN regular budget: Chinese envoy

China is going to be the third-largest contributor to UN regular budget 2016-2018, with its assessed contribution accounting for 7.9 percent, said a senior Chinese diplomat here Wednesday.

The Chinese contribution to the total UN membership dues ranks the third among 193 member states of the world body, just next to the United States and Japan, said Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

China's assessed contribution to peacekeeping budget will be 10.2 percent in the next three years, said Wang, noting that China will become the second-largest contributor to UN peacekeeping budget, only next to the United States.

With the new assessment, China's contribution to UN peacekeeping budget will overtake Japan for the first time, he noted.

China's membership dues and its assessed contribution to peacekeeping budget have been increased substantially, said Wang, adding that the increase has reflected China's steady economic growth over the past 30 years.

This increase is an objective reflection of China's national strength in the international system, Wang said, adding that China, as the second-largest economy in the world, is required to share more of the UN regular budget and peacekeeping budget.

This also symbolizes a big increase of China's international influence, he said.

Wang also said the new assessment has also taken into account that China is still a developing country.

Although China's economic aggregate is large, its per capita level is low, and therefore China, without any doubt, is a developing country, which is an important basis for assessing China's capability to pay, he said.

Wang reiterated that as long as the calculation method for membership dues is fair, just and reasonable, China is willing to fulfill its budgetary obligation, and to shoulder its special responsibility in the respect of peacekeeping budget as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Endi