Xinhua Commentary: Empowering women with more equality, resilience and hope

BEIJING, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Gender equality is not merely a women's issue but a matter essential to the sustainable development of humanity. While progress has been made, the struggle for gender equality is far from over. Women around the world continue to face significant challenges.

China is to host the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women to reaffirm the spirit of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, to rally collective efforts, and to inject new energy into advancing equality and comprehensive development for more than 4 billion women worldwide.

Over the past decades, Chinese women have achieved higher social status and personal fulfillment. They uphold half the sky, with their voices increasingly heard, their efforts recognized, and their opportunities secured. Today, Chinese women enjoy healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives.

In China, women's life expectancy has risen to 80.9 years, and enrollment of girls in compulsory education exceeds 99.9 percent nationwide. Women now comprise over half of all higher education students and account for around 43 percent of the total workforce, with their influence growing across governance, science, business and sports.

China has developed a model for advancing gender equality that is tailored to its national conditions and has proven effective. Gender equality is enshrined as a fundamental state policy, strengthening both legal protections and social awareness.

For instance, through intensive training in microcredit and e-commerce, an increasing number of rural women are embracing the digital economy, closing the digital gap, and playing a unique role in China's poverty alleviation and rural revitalization efforts.

As a responsible developing country with nearly 700 million women, China's efforts to advance women's empowerment provide valuable experience for the rest of the world, particularly for developing and underdeveloped nations.

As an active supporter of global women's causes, China has contributed 20 million U.S. dollars to UN Women since 2015. In partnership with UNESCO, it established the Prize for Girls' and Women's Education and supported projects in Africa that promote digital and health education for girls.

Through the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, China has carried out women-focused projects valued at over 40 million U.S. dollars across more than 20 countries.

Chinese women also actively engage with the global community in peacekeeping, climate action and humanitarian relief. To date, over 1,200 Chinese female peacekeepers and 100 female police officers have served in UN missions, while training programs in China have benefited hundreds of women officials and scholars from developing countries involved in climate change initiatives.

With only five years left to meet the gender-related targets of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the global community must act with greater urgency. Closing the gender gap is not the responsibility of any one country alone; the international community must strengthen cooperation to advance the global cause of women.

Thirty years after the 1995 Beijing conference, the upcoming event is expected to herald another milestone in the advancement of women since that landmark meeting.

As women's growing presence reshapes the landscape of the modern world, it paves the way for a future defined by greater equality, resilience and hope. ■