The wife of the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Madam Liang Huili lead a media briefing yesterday, to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) taking place today. The event which took place at the Ambassador’s residence in Maitama, Abuja, was graced by several women from all works of life, including the media.
Liang Huili while giving the keynote address, expressed delight at hosting the event promoting women’s cause. She touched on women’s participation in the great achievements of Nigeria-China bilateral cooperation in recent years. “Harmony-symphony Initiative is forming up a new frame work for bilateral exchanges of women from our two countries. After more than a year of living in Nigeria, I have a strong feeling that harmony is indeed a common value pursued and cherished by both societies in Nigeria and China.
“Its also my pleasure to see that the Chinese Embassy in recent years also paid alot of effort to improve the wellbeing of women and other vulnerable groups in Nigeria.
“It is in history that in March of 1911, the first International Women’s Day was marked by over a million people in several European countries, calling for women’s basic rights.
“The Communist Party of China (CPC), as the ruling party in China, has been leading and improving the work concerning women in the past 70 yers after the founding of New China.”
Furthermore, in the spirit of celebrating women, Madam Liang Huili made mention of some Chinese women, for example: Tu You You, a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist; Wang Yaping, the first youngest Chinese female astronaut; Hua chungying, the serving spokeperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs among others.
She further said that 40 % of the labour force in China are women and 340 million women in the labour force, with the figure doubling in 1978. She also mentioned that women’s political status grew significantly, with the number of female officials in CPC and government increased from 422,000 in early 1980s to 1.906 million in 2017, accounting for 26.5 % of the total officials.
Giving remarks, a media personnel from Nigeria News Agency, Sarafina Christopher, pointed out how powerful the girl child is, adding that women should not be limited to getting married and birthing children. She also appreciated that China as a nation is intentional about the girl child.
