Members, from the sector of women's federations, made many suggestions, involving issues directly related to the well-being of families, during the fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held in Beijing from March 4-11.
The suggestions addressed family education, adolescents' mental health, talent support and scientific and technological innovation. The suggestions reflected the women's commitment to improving people's livelihoods, and to building a great country.
Elder Care, Childcare
Many of the members, focusing on the well-being of children and the elderly, which are top concerns for virtually every family, made suggestions aimed at enhancing childbirth support and family services, through institutional innovation and technological empowerment.
Lin Yi, Vice-President and Member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), suggested fostering family friendly enterprises is key to implementing the strategy of high-quality population development, and to enhancing the effectiveness of China's childbirth-friendly policies. She urged the establishment of a three-in-one certification mechanism for family friendly enterprises, including multilevel and classified standards, a standardized certification process and incentive measures.
Wu Haiying, former Vice-President and former Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, highlighted the roles of digital and intelligent empowerment in the domestic-services industry. Wu said the industry's high-quality development is vital to boosting employment, developing rural areas and serving the elderly and children. She called for the establishment of digital- and intelligent-service platforms for the industry, and the development of standards and strengthened credit supervision over domestic-services workers, through the use of digital and intelligent technology. She also called for the promotion of artificial intelligence and smart devices in elder care and maternal and infant services, and enhancing talent training, by incorporating digital skills into relevant courses.
Wang Shuhui, general manager of Xi'an Ancient Capital Trusted Breakfast Engineering Co., Ltd., (in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province), suggested developing a government-guided, enterprise-sponsored and market-oriented model of meal-assistance services for the elderly. The initiative would make it easier to coordinate meal-assistance services for the elderly, across communities, and to enhance the quality of the services, reduce costs and foster the development of the services over the long run. Wang also called for securing food safety, to ensure the elderly receive quality services.
Younger Generation's Growth
Members also focused their attention on family education and the growth of teenagers, to protect the healthy development of the next generation.
Zhang Xiaolan, former Vice-President and former Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, emphasized the importance of family education. She called for the thorough implementation of the Family Education Promotion Law, and for improvements in the school-family-society collaborative education mechanism. Also, she called for the standardized development of community parent schools, strengthening the functions of family-education-guidance organizations, and the inclusion of family-education-guidance services in public service systems, with government funding support. Such efforts would provide support to parents, as they raise their children in a sound way, and promote children's healthy growth, Zhang added.
Xu Ruixia, deputy director of the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (in North China), focused on adolescents' mental health. She highlighted the importance of promoting psychological knowledge, through parent schools, integrating mental-health education in school curricula, guiding the public to have a correct understanding of adolescents' mental health, and building a closed-loop psychological-service system, with school-medical collaboration. "It takes coordinated efforts from families, schools and society to address mental health issues among adolescents," Xu said.
Mi Rong, deputy director of neonatal internal medicine at Capital Institute of Pediatrics (in Beijing), has long focused on children's health. She urged the prioritization of vaccine access for children in areas where medical resources are inadequate, to prevent severe respiratory infections. She also called for expanding newborn-disease screening, to cover more congenital disorders, to ensure early diagnosis and treatment.
High-Quality Development
Science and technology play vital roles in advancing Chinese modernization. During group discussions, members offered insights into various topics, including cultivating women sci-tech talents, achieving breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields, and supporting Hong Kong and Macao as they continue integrating into the country's overall development. Such initiatives will allow women to contribute their strength to China's high-quality development.
Xia Jie, former Vice-President and former Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, is a member of the Standing Committee of the 14th CPPCC National Committee. She suggested there was a need to improve policies and develop a more favorable environment to support the development of women sci-tech talents, and to give play to the exemplary roles of women sci-tech talents, to enhance scientific and technological literacy among the public.
Jiang Yan, vice-chief engineer of Shenyang Blower Works Group Corporation (in Northeast China), stressed the need to enhance both China's hard and soft power to pursue high-quality development. In terms of hard power, she suggested efforts should focus on strengthening research breakthroughs and empowering new quality productive forces with digital technologies. Regarding soft power, she said talent support must be strengthened, and efforts must be made to promote Chinese standards globally, and to accelerate the translation of scientific and technological innovations into actual productive forces, to inject strong impetus into China's high-quality development.
Zhang Zuojiao, chairperson of Hong Kong Fung Yuen Industrial Group, said: "The government work report called for 'supporting Hong Kong and Macao in better integrating into and contributing to the country's overall development.' This charted the course for Hong Kong's future development." She suggested women in Hong Kong should play a greater role in scientific and technological innovation, modern finance and social governance. She also called for more exchange and cooperation platforms for women in the GBA, and for enhanced youth exchanges between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.
Source: Women Voice
(Women of China English Monthly April 2026)
Editor: Wang Shasha
