[White Paper] Equality, Development and Sharing: Progress of Women's Cause in 70 Years Since New China's Founding

IX. Women Taking Part in Extensive International Exchanges and Cooperation Activities

China attaches great importance to international exchanges and cooperation in the field of women. We strongly support women and women's organizations represented by the All-China Women's Federation to actively make friends, build friendships, learn from each other, and promote common development with women around the world. Chinese women's "circle of friends" are constantly growing. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, in the process of promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, the Chinese women's cause has achieved a historic leap in leading the development of women worldwide, contributing Chinese plans and strength to women's movement across the globe.

Actively participating in and hosting international conferences and promoting global women's development. When New China was first founded, China actively supported women's organizations to participate in the Women's International Democratic Federation, and held the All-Asian Women's Conference, ushering in a new chapter in women's diplomacy. In 1975, 1980 and 1985, the Chinese delegation attended the First, Second and Third World Conference on Women, participated in drafting documents, and sent out Chinese voices. In 1995, China hosted the Fourth UN World Conference on Women, and proposed a basic national policy of the equality between men and women, making an important contribution to formulating the Beijing Declaration and Program of Action, which played an instrumental role in global gender equality. In 2015, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and the 20th anniversary of the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China and the UN Women jointly organized the Global Summit of Women, which was attended by more than 140 heads of state and government, as well as representatives of UN agencies and international organizations. Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over the summit and delivered an important speech, profoundly expounding the Chinese proposition of promoting the equality between men and women and women's all-round development. The summit has achieved fruitful results and injected new vitality into the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, introducing a new milestone for the development of women's cause around the world.

Seriously fulfilling international obligations and reflecting the responsibility of a major country. China actively signs and ratifies the UN's international instruments in the field of gender equality and fully promotes gender equality and women's development progress. In 1980, it signed into law the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, earnestly fulfilled its obligations under the Convention, submitted a report on honoring responsibilities on time, received review and implemented the concluding observations of the committee. As a member of the UN Commission on the Status of Women and host of the Fourth World Conference on Women, China has successively promulgated and implemented the Outline of Chinese Women's Development, actively implemented the strategic objectives of 12 major areas of concern of the Beijing Declaration and the Program of Action, and regularly submitted national reports on duty fulfillment. It has also carefully implemented the UN Millennium Development Goals and accomplished tasks such as reducing extreme poverty and hunger, eliminating gender disparities in education, and reducing maternal mortality. China has seriously implemented the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, prioritized the empowerment of women and girls in country programs, honored ministerial and departmental responsibilities, and made positive progress on a number of development goals.