2019-10-12_The_Economist_

46 TheEconomistOctober 12th 2019

1

T

he beatings were so brutal that Dong

Fang (not her real name) was left par-

tially deaf, and her daughter needed three

stitches in her hand. Not long ago, China’s

courts would probably have ignored such

an assault, because the attacker was both

Ms Dong’s husband and the girl’s father.

Luckily for the victims, however, the coun-

try had recently enacted a domestic-vio-

lence bill. This enabled Ms Dong to obtain a

restraining order from a court in Chengdu,

the south-western city where she lives. Lo-

cal media praised this as an example of the

new law in action. Later came the shock.

The same court rejected Ms Dong’s petition

for divorce. It reasoned that the marriage

was still on a “very firm” foundation and

the husband should be given “a chance”,

the judge told a newspaper in Beijing.

Ms Dong’s plight is common. The law on

domestic violence, which took effect in

March 2016, aims to protect women. But it

is also intended to “promote family harmo-

ny and social stability”. Judges often con-

sider this more important than women’s

well-being. A study of 150,000 divorce

cases filed between 2009 and September

2016, more than two-thirds of them by

women, found the new law had done little

to help female victims. When people file

their first petition for divorce (many have

several tries), judges are more likely to

agree if the plaintiff is a man. They are usu-

ally unswayed by claims of violence. “For

abused women, courts are the problem,

not the solution,” says the study’s author,

Ethan Michelson of Indiana University.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is a champion

of tradition. He describes families as the

“cells” of society (mention of Mr Xi’s di-

vorce from his first wife in 1982, after only

three years of marriage, is taboo). Officials

fear those cells are decaying as marriage

rates fall and divorce rates soar. Last year

more than 10m couples tied the knot and

nearly 4.5m undid it. This is partly because,

for many people, divorce has become much

easier. Before 2003 it needed approval from

an employer or community leader. Now, if

both partners agree, they can quickly un-

marry at a local civil-affairs bureau.

But the one-in-six cases that end up in

court are complicated. Last year two-thirds

of them were rejected at the first hearing.

Domestic violence has been a legal ground

for divorce and damages since 2001. But

abused spouses often remain trapped.

Sometimes judges refuse to approve di-

vorces for the sake of their own jobs. Per-

formance targets often involve finishing a

certain number of cases. As citizens be-

come more litigious, caseloads are growing

fast. For judges, saying no to a divorce is

usually quicker than arranging one.

Some judges also fear that the anger of

an aggrieved party may lead to violence. So

when a man threatens to murder his

wife—or the judge—if a divorce goes

through, courts often prefer to keep the

marriage together. Poor odds of success in

highly contentious divorce cases dissuade

women from attempting divorce in the

first place, says Leta Hong Fincher, the au-

thor of “Leftover Women: The Resurgence

of Gender Inequality in China”.

Possibly helped by public attention to

Domestic violence

No escape

Courts deny abused wives divorces in the name of social harmony

China

47 EmergencypowersinHongKong

48 Chaguan: Lessons from Tiananmen

Also in this section