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New Marriage Law: All-Powerful?
The revised draft of China's Marriage Law was finally passed by an overwhelming majority by the Standing Committee of the People¨s Congress on April 28 after several sessions of discussions, according to Beijing Today.
The new law , which has made significant changes on several original provisions, has been the daily concern of many Chinese. They offer different views on the amendment below:
Ms. Sun Yuyun, Jingchao Development Corporation
The high rate of divorce nowadays is to a certain degree due to the phenomenon of illicit cohabitation with those who are not one¨s wife or husband.
These illegal actions are now prohibited according to the new law, which can absolutely protect those women whose husbands have had secret sex with their partners (widely known as "bao er nai" to Chinese).
Mr Zhao , university teacher
First, the current marriage law can only be a transitional law that needs to be revised and supplemented in the future.
Secondly, in view of the traditional planned economy, marriage is the foundation of our society. Actually, in accordance with the current market economy, marriage should be a kind of contract between individuals. The amendments, however, try to solve marital problems by protecting the original social ties instead of personal relations, which cannot fit in with the needs of the market economy. Thirdly, in my personal view, I don¨t agree with the prohibition on illicit cohabitation. The punishment for bigamy is quite necessary, but it is much more difficult to define illicit cohabitation and even to investigate the various reasons of this phenomenon.
Mr. Yang, China Classification Society
As to compensation for the infringement of illicit cohabitation on the victim, I think it is not very easy to put into practice. First, the term "victim" is hard to define , because in a case of divorce both husband and wife can be victims. What¨s more, illicit cohabitation is a social problem which cannot be prevented simply by way of law. That¨s to say, the marriage law is not as all-powerful as most people would expect.
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