Whenever a disaster occurs in another country, many Chinese naturally check the news to confirm that none of their compatriots were killed or injured. That eight Chinese peacekeepers perished in Haiti's earthquake heightens the tragedy for people in China.

The loss of Chinese lives also draws attention to China's active participation in UN peacekeeping, and to the dedicated Chinese police officers.

In early 2004, former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a violent revolt that plunged the Caribbean island nation into chaos. In response to the deteriorating political, security and humanitarian situation in Haiti, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to send multinational stabilization forces to Haiti.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China did not hesitate to shoulder international peacekeeping responsibilities. Though Haiti is a small island on the other side of the globe, a place of almost no geopolitical or economic significance to China, China supported the UN effort by sending police forces there.

In September 2004, a riot squad of 125 officers arrived in Port-au- Prince, Haiti's capital, and began the peacekeeping mission. When the earthquake struck Haiti recently, there were still 125 of them including six female police officers.

Maintaining order in a country of anarchy and disorder is no easy task. According to the diary of Zhong Jianqin, one of the eight who died in the quake, the peacekeepers had to put up with not only extreme heat and poor sanitary conditions, but also a legion of rioters, armed robbers and kidnappers. Since the beginning of the mission, 32 peacekeepers from various countries have lost their lives on this remote tropical island.

Haiti is not the first, nor the last country with the footprints of Chinese peacekeepers. Since the first group of Chinese peacekeepers stepped on the soil of East Timor in 2000, China has up to now sent out more than 1,500 peacekeeping police officers, including to Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sudan and Liberia.

In an interconnected world, peace and stability in one region is directly or indirectly related to the peace and stability of the world. International peacekeeping is an unalienable part of the common responsibility to be shared by different nations.

Though still a developing nation, China has never shied away from the international obligation it should and can assume, as is exemplified by the fact that its citizens have contributed with their lives to the peace and stability of a faraway nation.

Keeping this in mind is the best way to remember their sacrifices.

(Global Times January 19, 2010)