China adopts first law on domestic violence
Print Edition
CHINA’S top legislature yesterday adopted the country’s first bill against domestic violence in a landmark move to bring traditionally silent abuse victims under legal protection.
The legislation was approved by a landslide majority at the end of the bimonthly session of the National Standing Committee.
“The country prohibits any form of domestic violence,” reads the new law, which formally defines domestic violence and streamlines the process for obtaining restraining orders — measures long advocated by anti-domestic abuse groups.
Domestic violence is defined as physical, psychological and other harm inflicted by family members with beatings, restraint or forcible limits on physical liberty, recurring invectives and verbal threats listed as examples.
An earlier draft included only physical abuse, but many lawmakers argued that the definition was too narrow, Su Zelin, deputy director with the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee, said earlier this week.
They also argued that cohabitation should be covered, Su said, so the new law stipulated in a supplementary article that those who are not related but living together are also subject.
According to Guo Linmao, a legislative official from the National People’s Congress Standing Committee legal affairs commission, the “living together” relationship covers also those in guardianship and foster care relationships as well as cohabitation, he said.
There are in the law no stipulations on same-sex relationships, he said.
Up till this week, China did not have a specialized law on family abuse. References to the matter were only made in other laws and regulations.
Family violence has remained in the shadows for a long time in China, where conflicts are treated as embarrassing, private matters. Less than two decades ago, physical abuse was not even acceptable as grounds for divorce in China. In 2001 the Marriage Law was amended to explicitly ban domestic violence.
But without a legal definition of the term, many victims — if they reported abuse at all — have been shuffled from police to women’s federations to neighborhood committees, with authorities reluctant to intervene unless serious injury is involved.
Only in recent years has the issue become a subject for serious public discussion, thanks to increasing public awareness and media reports on high-profile cases.
In 2011, Kim Lee, wife of celebrity entrepreneur Li Yang, who founded the hugely popular English learning program “Crazy English,” posted pictures of her bruised face on Weibo and accused Li of domestic violence.
Li Yang’s response, however, was even more shocking. He admitted to beating his wife but blamed her for breaking the Chinese tradition of not disclosing family affairs to the public.
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