Female police officer from Shanghai kept peace in Cyprus

Ti Gong

Li Fang, a police officer from Shanghai, is one of the few females from China who has joined  UN peacekeeping missions more than once.

Having finished her one-year mandate as the police chief of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) earlier this year, Li talked about her experiences with Shanghai Daily.

Li, who serves as the political commissar of the public security squad of the police in Putuo District, had her first peacekeeping experience in 2008 in Haiti where she worked as a human resource officer.

Putting on the blue helmet again after 12 years, Li found herself in a new role which proved to be more challenging especially in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UNFICYP, one of the longest-running UN Peacekeeping missions, was set up in 1964 to prevent further fighting between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on the island, and bring about a return to normal conditions.

It has supervised the 180 kilometers of ceasefire lines on the island since 1974, provides humanitarian assistance, and maintains a buffer zone between the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot forces in the north and the Greek Cypriot forces in the south.

The mission is comprised of the military, UN Police, the Civil Affairs Branch and Administration. During Li's mandate, the mission comprised of more than 900 people, including 70 police officers from 16 countries.

Li began her mandate in Cyprus in March last year at the height of the pandemic in China. On arrival, she entered a two-week quarantine and started her first days of work in the foreign country from her residence.

"Every morning I got dozens of e-mails, and my predecessor was not able to brief me in person about the miscellaneous work for the police chief," she said. "All I could do was to catch up as soon as possible."

In the meantime, she had to deal with the pandemic. The first COVID-19 case was reported in Cyprus on the fourth day after Li's arrival.

Drawing on best practices from China, Li required all police officers on the mission to wear masks and advised other components of the mission with the same. However, her suggestion was opposed by some of her colleagues who believed that wearing masks didn't belong with uniforms.

It was only later that the leadership of the mission required all on the mission to wear masks.

"People from different cultures have different understandings of mask wearing, but through communication we were able to understand and respect each other," Li said. "This is the charm of the UN."

Li, 49, said she now has more white hair than when she left for Cyprus, which was probably the result of her intense work during the mandate.

Li holds a Master's of Laws from East China University of Political Science and Law and a Master's of Trans-national Crime Prevention from University of Wollongong, Australia. She became one of the highest placed police officers from China in the UN peacekeeping corps ever.

Among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China is the largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping missions in terms of the number of police officers from the country who have joined the missions.

"As peacekeepers from China, our mission and goal is to demonstrate China's commitment to world peace and to show the professional qualities of China police," she said.