Feminist Studies

450 Feminist Studies 47, no. 2. © 2021 by Feminist Studies, Inc. Cai Yiping What Do Gender Equality and Women’s Rights Have to Do with China’s Global Engagement? The year 2020 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary (Beijing+25) of the Fourth World Conference on Women (4WCW) held in Beijing in 1995. At that meeting, the 189 members states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), committing to a comprehensive and visionary agenda for gender equality and the realization of women’s human rights.1 Since then, every five years, a review and appraisal of progress, gaps, and challenges in implementing the BPfA have been undertaken at national, regional, and global levels (Beijing+5 in 2000, Beijing+10 in 2005, Beijing+15 in 2010, and Beijing+20 in 2015). Feminist groups have criticized several member states for their lack of political courage or will to implement an ambitious agenda twenty -five years after 4WCW. They have expressed grave concern about the rise of authoritarianism, fascism, nationalism, xenophobia, supremacist ideologies, corporate power, and fundamentalism worldwide, which reinforce one another and entrench structural barriers to equality and human rights.2 1. United Nations, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Fourth World Conference on Women, (September 15, 1995), https://www.un.org/en/events /pastevents/pdfs/Beijing_Declaration_and_Platform_for_Action.pdf. 2. Women’s Rights Caucus, Feminist Declaration on the Occasion of the TwentyFifth Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, (March 9, 2020), https://iwhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Beijing-25-Feminist-declara tion.pdf. The Women’s Rights Caucus is a global coalition of over two hundred News and Views 451 Some scholars describe the 4WCW and the Women’s NGO Forum held in Beijing in 1995 as “a historic turning point for the women’s movement in China.”3 It has been the inspiration for many Chinese women scholars and activists who participated in the event as well as for younger generations of feminists in China.4 Back then, newly graduated from college , I participated in the Women’s NGO Forum held just outside Beijing in Huairou. It was my first encounter with the transnational feminist movement and the concept of a nongovernmental organization (NGO). That experience has influenced my life ever since. In the last twenty-five years, my work has been in the sectors of media/journalism, academia/ research, and activism/NGOs, both in China and globally, with a focus on gender, sexuality, human rights, and development. Particularly in the past decade, as executive committee member of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), a Global South feminist NGO, I have observed numerous UN negotiations on various processes regarding Sustainable Development Goals (Rio+20), the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+20 and +25), and women’s rights and gender equality (Beijing +20 and +25) at regional and global levels .5 In collaboration with feminist groups and other human rights activists from both the South and North, we have been advocating for the recognition of gender equality and inclusion of women’s human rights language, especially with respect to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), in the outcome documents of these meetings. This work organizations working to advance women’s human rights internationally, regionally, nationally, and locally. 3. Wang Zheng, “A Historic Turning Point for the Women’s Movement in China,” Signs 22, no. 1, (Autumn 1996): 192–99. 4. Bohong Liu, Wu Hua and Xie Lihua, Reflections and Resonance of Women— Sequel (To Commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women) (Beijing: Contemporary China Publishing House, 2015). 5. Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) is a network of feminist advocates, analysts, and activists from the Global South working for economic and gender justice as well as sustainable and democratic development . Since its founding in 1984, DAWN has sought to support women’s mobilization within civil society to challenge inequitable social, economic, and political relations at multiple levels, advancing feminist alternatives that promote social and economic equality. Through research, analysis, advocacy, and capacity building, DAWN provides a forum for feminist debates on issues affecting the livelihoods, human development, and human...