Xi to address global meeting on women

President Xi Jinping will attend and deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women next week, as China seeks to work with the international community to further advance the global cause of women's development.

The two-day meeting, to be held in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday, will bring together dozens of heads of state and government, parliamentary leaders, deputy prime ministers, ministerial-level officials, and representatives of international organizations from around the world.

Speaking at a regular news briefing on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the event will renew the spirit of the Fourth World Conference on Women and accelerate the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

In 1995, China hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women, during which the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted, marking a milestone for global gender equality.

Guo said the upcoming meeting is expected to provide fresh impetus to promote gender equality worldwide and the all-around development of women, as well as contribute to building a community with a shared future for humanity.

It was during a videolink speech at the high-level meeting marking the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2020 that Xi proposed convening another global leaders' meeting on women in 2025.

"We look forward to working with the international community to make the 2025 meeting a great success and set it up as another milestone in the history of global women's development," Guo said.

Over the past decades, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, China has made remarkable strides in improving women's wellbeing and promoting gender equality.

Xi pays high attention to promoting gender equality and well-rounded development of women. He attended the 11th, 12th and 13th national women's congresses in 2013, 2018 and 2023, respectively, and delivered speeches at global occasions such as the 2015 Global Leaders' Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment and the 2020 high-level meeting on the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Official data show that women now account for 49.9 percent of students in higher education institutions and about 43 percent of the total employed population.

Miao Lu, secretary-general of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank, said that China's hosting of the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women serves as a vivid example of the Global Governance Initiative in action under the evolving global governance landscape.

"As the initiative is people-centered, and women are an important part of the people, advancing women's development embodies the very concept of people-centered global governance," Miao said.