Marriage Law Amendments Approved

The Chinese legislature passed sweeping changes Saturday to its 20-year-old Marriage Law, explicitly banning concubinage and domestic violence.

The Amendments to the Marriage Law was adopted with 127 approvals, one objection and 9 abstentions by the National People' s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

"The 33 major alterations to the former 37-article law are urgently needed in light of the fast-changing social realities and volatile family relations," Wu Changzhen, a senior marriage law expert, told Xinhua today.

Bigamy and keeping concubines by the country's new rich are eroding social morality, and the Party and government officials involved have also tarnished the image of the government, lawmakers said.

Domestic violence has been reported in 30 percent of Chinese families, and it causes 60 percent of divorces today, statistics show.

The new law prohibits bigamy and cohabitation with others outside marriage.

Although most people have hailed such stipulations as effective means for cracking down upon "keeping a second wife" among the new rich, feminists said they are not enough to curb the ever- spreading practice of adultery and extramarital matters.

But Professor Wu of the China University of Political and Legal Sciences maintained that she expects the Supreme Court to issue more explanations to curb "acts that lead to serious consequences to family relations."

Party and government discipline and moral judgment will also play their roles in curbing such activities, she said.

A considerable part of the amendments are devoted to curbing domestic violence, abuse, and mistreatment of either the young or the old.

The innocent party may claim compensation from the other party in cases of bigamy, keeping concubines and, spouse abuse in divorce settlements, the new law says.

Complicated rules on property were added to the new law to defuse disputes upon divorce, because judges found that most people who brought divorce settlements to court were wealthy people who had been fighting over property disagreements.

The Chinese public have been ardent observers and participants in the law revision drama. Statistics show that 91.6 percent of respondents to an official survey said that they are in favor of revisions to the Marriage Law, and more than 3,800 wrote to the top legislature to air their opinions on the amendments.

Li Yinhe, the top sociologist in China specializing in marriage and family relations, said the active involvement of the public in the law-making has been result of the drastic social transformation of China, which is opening wider to the outside world.

"The younger generation is becoming more liberal in its views of marriage, family and sex because of the rapid economic development and the negative impact of foreign culture," she said.

Official figures show that 8,480,000 couples tied the knot in 2000, 10.8 percent down from 10 years ago, while 1,210,000 broke up last year, up 51.25 percent.

To promote strict implementation of the new law, Li Peng, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, today called for more efforts in education to "ensure the provisions enshrined in the law are known to every household, such as monogamy, freedom of marriage, sex equality and birth control, so as to better maintain family happiness and social stability."






People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/