A Chinese women's representative said on Wednesday that March 8 has become a day of celebration for women in many countries, and in China, the Women's Day this year is worth particular commemoration.

The statement came as Meng Xiaosi, head of the Chinese Delegation to the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, was addressing a UN meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York to commemorate the International Women's Day, which falls on March 8 annually. Also present at the gathering was UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

Meng Xiaosi (front), head of the Chinese Delegation to the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, addresses a UN meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York to commemorate the International Women's Day, which falls on March 8 annually. [Xinhua]

"March 8 has become a day of celebration for women in many countries," Meng said. "For women of all races, colors, classes, ethnicities or religions, whether disabled or not, we share the same name 'women.' No other moment enables us to better understand our connections and our shared destiny."

The International Women's Day this year is worth particular commemoration, she said, adding that 2010 marks not only the centenary of the International Women's Day, but also the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 10th anniversary of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, as well as the 15th anniversary of the 4th World Conference on Women (FWCW) and the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

"These milestones recorded the glorious course of world women's movement, and witnessed marvelous achievements of world women's cause for equality and development," she said.

"However, as Juliet Mitchell, the British feminist, pointed out, women's liberation may be the longest ever revolution," she said. "New realities not only call on all states to fully deliver their commitments, but also require us to adopt more vigorous and more effective actions to bring gender equality and women's advancement to a new height."

"In China, the Women's Day this year is of particular importance," she said. "At the arrival of the centenary of the International Women's Day, the Chinese women's movement stands on a new starting point of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China."

"Over the 60 years, the status of Chinese women has undergone ' earth-shaking' changes," she said. "Hundreds of millions of Chinese women are no longer the oppressed and fettered group of the past, but masters of the country, the society and their own destiny."

"The reform and opening up and rapid development of China has brought along unprecedented opportunities for progress of women," she said. "Through active participation in competition and by meeting challenges in the spirits of self respect, self confidence, self reliance and self development, Chinese women have played positive roles in economic, political, scientific, educational and health affairs, and hold up 'half of the sky' of economic and social progress of New China."

Decades' experience of advancing women's cause in China shows that equality and development are interdependent and inseparable from each other, and that women's advancement is inseparable from national development, strong political will of the government, as well as active participation and contribution of all citizens, Meng said. "Only when equality and development go hand in hand can we blaze a longer and broader path forward."

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