Wednesday 15 / October / 2025
Since assuming my post as Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Sultanate of Oman, I have had the privilege of meeting many outstanding Omani women from all walks of life.
Their wisdom, diligence, and dedication, along with their sincerity and enthusiasm for promoting China-Oman cooperation, have left a deep impression on me.
Oman has long been a pioneer in the Arab world in promoting gender equality and advancing women’s development.
Since 1970, under the wise leadership of late His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, Oman has made remarkable strides in the advancement of women.
As early as 1994, Oman became the first member state of the Gulf Cooperation Council to grant women the right to vote and to stand for election.
Today, Omani women have distinguished themselves across government institutions, parliament, business, education, and scientific research, becoming a vital pillar of the country’s economic diversification and injecting fresh momentum into Oman’s modernisation process.
The designation of October 17 as Omani Women’s Day fully reflects the government’s strong commitment to women’s empowerment and social inclusion.
As His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik stated, “We hope that women will enjoy their rights as guaranteed by law, and that they will work in different fields along with men, in serving their country and society.”
Women are vital creators, promoters, and inheritors of human civilisation, and advancing women’s causes is a shared responsibility of the international community.
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese government has attached great importance to the development of women.
As a Chinese saying goes, “Women hold up half the sky.” Thirty years ago, the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, bringing together tens of thousands of delegates from around the globe.
The conference adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which made gender equality a universal consensus of the international community.
On October 13, the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women 2025, cohosted by China and UN Women, was grandly held in Beijing, the capital of China.
At the opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech titled “Carrying Forward the Spirit of the Beijing World Conference on Women and Promoting the New and Accelerated Process for Women’s All-Round Development”.While affirming the remarkable achievements made in advancing women’s causes worldwide, he also pointed out that issues such as conflict, poverty, discrimination, the digital divide, and unequal distribution of resources still constrain women’s comprehensive development.
President Xi Jinping put forward four proposals on how to further advance women’s development: We should jointly foster an enabling environment for women’s growth and development.
We need to uphold the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and must safeguard world peace.
We need to enhance the protection of women and girls in regions struck by war, conflict, poverty or natural disaster, and support the vital role of women in preventing conflict and rebuilding their homes.
We should improve mechanisms against violence.
We should jointly cultivate powerful momentum for the highquality development of women’s cause.
We should proactively address the imbalance and inadequacy of women’s development around the world, enable all women to share the benefits of economic globalization, and propel women’s all-round development.
We need to empower women’s high-quality development through innovation. We need to support women in playing an even bigger role in green development.
We should jointly develop governance frameworks to protect women’s rights and interests.
We need to improve institutions and laws, introduce further tangible and accessible policy measures, channel more quality health and educational resources to all women, and strive to afford all women full and equal enjoyment of various rights.
We must promote an inclusive and harmonious social environment that sets women free from discrimination and bias.
We should broaden the channels for women to participate in and deliberate on political affairs, and support their extensive engagement in state and social governance.
We should jointly nurture an environment that respects women, and morph gender equality into a common value and a code of conduct embraced by everyone in our society.
We should jointly promote global cooperation on women.
We must support them to play a substantive role in global governance and share in its benefits.
We should support the central role of the United Nations, urging it to pay more attention to the needs of women in developing countries, create broad cooperation platforms for women from all countries, and continually deepen exchanges and mutual learning.
President Xi Jinping proposed five concrete measures for China’s further support of the global cause of women: In the next five years, China will donate another US$10 million to U.N. Women; earmark a quota of US$100 million in China’s Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund for implementing development cooperation projects for women and girls in collaboration with international organisations; launch 1,000 “small and beautiful” livelihood programmes with Chinese assistance that take women and girls as priority beneficiaries; invite 50,000 women to China for exchange and training programmes; and establish a Global Center for Women’s Capacity Building, which is aimed at conducting capacity building and other development cooperation with relevant countries and international organisations to train more female talent.
China adheres to the basic national policy of gender equality, and through the improvement of laws, policies, and systems, actively promotes women’s comprehensive development in education, employment, health, social security, and scientific and technological innovation.
In recent years, we have secured historic achievements and seen historic changes in the cause of women in China.
We have won the largest battle against poverty in human history, and thereby brought moderate prosperity to 690 million women, achieving ahead of schedule the poverty reduction goal of the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Currently, women make up more than 40 percent of the workforce, maintaining one of the highest levels globally.
Women’s educational attainment has risen significantly, and women now make up more than 40% of scientific researchers and more than half of internet start-up founders.
The proportion of women among National People’s Congress deputies and CPPCC members continues to grow.
Women also make up more than 60 percent of all medalists in the past four Summer Olympic Games.
Madam Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping, has served for many years as UNESCO Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls’ and Women’s Education, devoting herself to promoting education for women and girls in China and around the world.
She has emphasised that promoting girls’ and women’s education is a great cause that has close bearing on social progress and the shared future of mankind.
As human society is now entering the intelligence era, it is essential to place greater emphasis on women’s scientific education, helping more women acquire scientific knowledge, learn to apply new technologies, and enhance their innovative capabilities.
We must strive to ensure that women can embrace the technological revolution and create fulfilled lives.
China and Oman share common goals and philosophies in 7 promoting gender equality and advancing women’s development.
China stands ready to work hand in hand with Oman to carry forward the spirit of the Beijing World Conference on Women, to jointly implement the consensus reached at the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women, and to uphold the principles of equality, development, and shared benefits, thereby promoting the comprehensive progress of women.
The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Sultanate of Oman will continue to collaborate closely with all sectors of Omani society to strengthen cooperation in women’s development and capacity building, foster exchanges between Chinese and Omani women, and ensure that women in both countries benefit from the growing friendship and deepening cooperation between China and Oman.
Let us join hands to create an even brighter future for our two nations!
