China to donate $250,000 to UNHCR’

GENEVA—China will donate 250,000 U.S. dollars to the UN refugee agency for its humanitarian work in 2008,a senior Chinese diplomat said here Tuesday.
Li Baodong, Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Office in Geneva, said China makes the donation in the spirit of “international solidarity and burden sharing,” adding that the amount will be used for helping developing countries’ capability building.
Addressing the annual Pledging Conference of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Li said the total number of world refugees increased dramatically to nearly 10 million last year, the first such increase since 2000.
“China believes that the UNHCR, as an important international organization in the field of humanitarian assistance, has both the obligation and capability to tackle various humanitarian challenges in cooperation with all governments,” he said.—Xinhua