China had 15.03 million women cadres at the end of 2005, accounting for 38.9 percent of the total number of cadres in China, according to official statistics.

The figure represents a 2.7 percentage-point rise from 2001, according to statistics released at a national meeting held in Beijing Wednesday and Thursday to select women cadres and increasing the number of women members in the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The number of women members in the CPC reached 13.57 million at the end of 2005, accounting for 19.2 percent of total membership. That's a 1.8 percentage point rise over 2001, according to the statistics.

He Guoqiang, head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, said at the meeting that more outstanding women cadres should be encouraged to take up leadership positions at various levels. The number of women CPC members should also be increased.

He said the work of training and selecting women cadres and increasing the number of women CPC members is important to building a socialist harmonious society and it is an effective approach to developing socialist democracy.

"The dual contributions of women cadres to the society and family should be judged properly," he said. "There should be preferential policies (toward women). Women should enjoy priority in receiving promotion under the same conditions."

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2006)