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Lower the age for marriage
Source: Xinhua |
March 6, 2012, Tuesday
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IN China, the legal age for marriage is now 22 years for men and 20 years for women. This needs to be changed.
Huang Xihua, a deputy to the current session of the National People's Congress, argues that the age threshold should be lowered to 18 years for both men and women.
In the Tang (618-907 AD) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, men could be married at 15 and women could be married at 13. Even in 1950, the legal age for marriage was 20 for men and 18 for women. It was in 1980 that the thresholds were elevated to 22 for men and 20 for women. At that time, China was concerned about too-rapid growth in its population.
But 30 years have passed and more and more Chinese have come to realize the burden of bearing more than one child. So, lowering the age threshold for marriage only increases the chance of marriages. It doesn't follow that more people will be born.
Lowering the marriage age thresholds also conforms to China's current civil law, under which a Chinese citizen is deemed fully responsible for his or her civil actions at the age of 18.
Huang Xihua, a deputy to the current session of the National People's Congress, argues that the age threshold should be lowered to 18 years for both men and women.
In the Tang (618-907 AD) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, men could be married at 15 and women could be married at 13. Even in 1950, the legal age for marriage was 20 for men and 18 for women. It was in 1980 that the thresholds were elevated to 22 for men and 20 for women. At that time, China was concerned about too-rapid growth in its population.
But 30 years have passed and more and more Chinese have come to realize the burden of bearing more than one child. So, lowering the age threshold for marriage only increases the chance of marriages. It doesn't follow that more people will be born.
Lowering the marriage age thresholds also conforms to China's current civil law, under which a Chinese citizen is deemed fully responsible for his or her civil actions at the age of 18.
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