A Chinese women's leader said on Tuesday morning that China expanded women diplomacy with the rest of the world in the past five years.

Huang Qingyi, deputy chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), delivered a work report to the Tenth National Women's Congress.

Huang said that her federation aided the Chinese government to pass the review by the United Nations on China's implementation on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which was adopted by the UN in 1979.

The ACWF successfully organized the tenth anniversary celebrations on the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing in 1995, Huang said.

The federation also arranged women's cultural week activities with its counterparts in France, the United Kingdom, Russia and the Republic of Korea in the past five years, Huang said.

Huang added that the ACWF has built friendly relations with 697 women's or children's organizations in 164 countries and regions as well as international organizations.

The Chinese women's federation tried hard to expand exchange and cooperation between the mainland women and those in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan, which greatly contributed to the long-term prosperity in both Hong Kong and Macao as well as the promotion of peaceful reunification of the motherland, Huang said.

The five-day congress will hear and discuss a work report by the Ninth Executive Committee of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), deliberate and adopt amendments to the federation's constitution, and elect the 10th ACWF Executive Committee.

ACWF Chairwoman Gu Xiulian said 1,407 delegates from across the country were present at the once-every-five-year congress. Among the 1,280 elected delegates, 1,020 of them are newly elected. Each of China's 55 ethnic minorities has at least one delegate to the congress.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2008)