Commentary: Global endeavor needed to promote women's rights

As about 80 world leaders discussed gender equality and women's empowerment at a UN summit Sunday, the fact that women's rights are not guaranteed in many parts of the world is reminding us that global efforts are urgently needed in this regard.

Women worldwide are still facing violence, poverty, lack of access to higher education and relatively low representation in political as well as economic decision-making bodies.

Statistics show that gender disparity widens at the secondary and tertiary school levels in many countries, that women earn 10-30 percent less than men for the same work and that only 22 percent of all national parliamentarians were female as of August 2015.

A recent World Bank report said that women in the Middle East and North Africa face the most hurdles in getting a job or starting a business and that Saudi Arabia is the most restrictive economy in the Middle East in terms of women's ability to work or start a business.

Against such a backdrop, it is very necessary to hold such a summit, at which Chinese President Xi Jinping made a four-point proposal on further advancing women's rights worldwide. The proposal indicates the direction for women's development and solutions to current challenges.

The proposals include striving for women's development in tandem with social and economic progress; protecting women's rights and interests; jointly building harmonious and inclusive societies and fostering a global environment conducive to women's development.

In fact, it is because the Chinese leadership attaches great importance to the pursuit of gender equality -- Xi called it "a great cause" -- that China has made significant achievements in championing women's rights.

According to the report on China's Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) jointly launched by the Chinese government and the UN System in China in July 2015, China has achieved gender equality in primary and secondary school education. In addition, the gap between boys and girls in terms of the years of education was narrowed from 1.3 years in 2000 to 0.8 years in 2014.

Moreover, there are more than 21 million women working in the science and technology sector, making up around 40 percent of the total number of Chinese workers in that sector, the report said.

Unfortunately, some Western media and politicians, disregarding the above facts, disseminate an inaccurate view of China's social issues by criticizing women's development in China.

The truth is that China, according to Xi, "will do more to enhance gender equality as its basic state policy" as women hold up "half the sky." Also, Xi said that his country would support women in pursuing their dreams and aspirations in both their careers and personal lives.

What's more, China, as a responsible major world country, is playing a leading role worldwide in helping women, half of the global population, to realize their dreams.

At the summit, Xi announced a 10 million-U.S.-dollar donation to UN Women, the agency promoting women's rights, to implement the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action and the realization of related goals in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

In the coming five years, China will help other developing countries build 100 "health projects for women and children," send teams of medical experts to provide services, and implement 100 "happy campus projects" to finance the schooling of poor girls and raise girls' school enrollment rate.

China will also host 30,000 women from developing countries for training programs in the country and provide 100,000 skills training opportunities in local communities of other developing countries.

From the 1995 World Conference on Women held in Beijing to the 2015 UN summit co-hosted by China and UN Women, China's contributions have opened up broad prospects for women's development, which needs concerted efforts from all countries around the world. Endi