CEDAW/C/SR.33 English Page 7 Initial report of the People's Republic of China (CEDAW/C/5/hid.14) 17. Mrs. ZANG Zhong-an (China) said that it had been over three years since the Convention had entered into force in her country. The defence of the legitimate rights of women and children was one of the basic policies that had been unswervingly carried out since the birth of the People's Republic ot China. The principles of the Convention coincided basically with the desires and needs of the Chinese people. Its implementation was of practical signifi~ance in furthering equality between men and women. 18. The Government of China had always regarded the emancipation of women as an integral part of the task of building socialism and had made sustained efforts to achieve full equality between the sexes. The Constitution guaranteed equality of rights for women. 'lhose rights were also set forth in the Marriage Law, the Electoral Law, the Criminal Code and other instruments. Those provisions fell into two categories: the basic rights of all citizens regardless of sex and the special rights and interests of women. 19. The new Constitution, adopted in 1982, stipulated in unequivocal terms the general principle of equality between the sexes. Among the major provisions concerning the protection of the rights of women and children, article 33 of the Constitution stipulated that all citizens of the People's Republic of China were equal before the law. Article 48 of the Constitution laid down that women enjoyed equal rights with men in all spheres of life, political, economic, cultural and social, including family life. The State protected the rights and interests of women, applied to men and women the principle of equal pay for equal work, and trained and selected cadres from among women. 20. Article 49 stated, inter alia, that marriage, the family and mothers and children were protected by the State. Violation of the freedom of marriage and maltreatment of old people, women and children were prohibited. In order to ensure the implementation of the Constitutional provisions, the Chinese Government was in the process of tormulating specific legislation dealing with the protection of the rights and interests of women. To put those laws and regulations into practice, the Sixth National People's Congress had decided to mandate its Standing Committee to draft laws and to monitor the implementation of the Constitution. The Standing Committee had decided to set up a Law Committee, 2 of whose 13 members were women who were, at the same time, Vice-Presidents of the All-China women's Federation, which placed them in an even better position to safeguard women's legitimate rights and interests. 21. China believed that the role of women and the development of the country were complementary. It was impossible to progress on the road towards socialism without the participation of women. It was only when more and more of them became part of the active population that it would be possible to enhance continuously their status in political, economic and social.life and in the family. Currently, the number of urban working women had increased to 40,930,000, a figure which represented 36.2 per cent of the urban work force. In addition to the textile industry, women worked in light industries, cultural and educational institutions, public health and commerce. They also practised non-traditional professions in I .. .