Hua Mulan, a legendary female heroin ancient China, had to dress up as a man to enlist in the army in place of her old father. Today, an increasing number of women in China are entering politics in their own right.

Wu Yi

According to information released by the All-China Women's Federation Thursday, seven women currently hold posts in the leadership of the state and the Communist Party of China (CPC). They are Wu Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council; He Luli, Gu Xiulian and Uyunqimg, vice chairwomen of the Standing Committeeof the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature; Chen Zhili, a State Councilor; Liu Yandong and Hao Jianxiu, vice chairwomen of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Women now hold 14 ministerial positions in departments of the State Council, 56 leading posts of 31 province-level administrative zones and 4,353 leading posts of 2,813 counties.

Gu Xiulian, vice-president of the All China Women's Federation (ACWF), said Thursday that Chinese women were participating in theadministration of state and social affairs on a greater scale, a clear indicator of the improving status of Chinese women.

The brilliant performance of Chinese women leaders has caught attention on both the domestic and the world scene. Wu Yi, dubbed "China's iron lady", won world acclaim in steering the recent fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China.

When she served as China's minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, Wu had already exhibited her high caliber indealing with China's WTO talks and Sino-US negotiations on intellectual property rights.

There are many other achievements showing Chinese women's contribution to politics. More than 600 women were elected deputies of the 2,985-member 10th NPC, of which 21 women were elected members of the Standing Committee, four more than in the ninth NPC.

Despite the active roles of Chinese women in politics, experts pointed out that China was still behind the goal of women holding 30 percent of the political posts raised by the United Nations.

The Chinese Government is vigorously working achieving that goal. In Beijing, a five-year target has been set to have women occupy more than 28 percent of the seats in the municipal congressof the CPC, the municipal people's congress and the municipal committee of the CPPCC. The ratio of women serving as heads of departments of the municipal government shall rise from the present 16.7 percent to more than 20 percent.

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