As of yesterday (Jan 1) Chinese citizens seeking a mutual divorce must wait 30 days before they can get break the knot.
When I first read that news, I thought my eyes were backward. Did this mean the waiting period was longer and so the government decided to shorten it to 30 days? That sounds like a great idea for anyone looking to end a marriage, especially an abusive or unfulfilling one. I come from the land of long, drawn-out divorce proceedings, where it can be a very painful and expensive process for everyone involved until it’s final. Many friends are stuck in limbo and loans until it’s all sorted. So it’s hard for me to imagine what the reality in China was before yesterday: if the divorce was mutually agreed upon, you could file for divorce and get it immediately, sometimes within an hour.
But with this new law looming in some couple’s minds, lines outside of marriage bureaus started to multiple. According to Chinese media site Sixth Tone:
Outside the marriage registration bureau in Huangpu, a security guard surnamed Yin told Sixth Tone that, by his observation, twice as many couples were visiting the building to sever their marital ties.
“There are so many people coming to get divorced this month. Everyone wants to get it done before the cool-off period,” Yin said, taking a drag from a cigarette. “On typical days, we would have 20 couples on average. Now, there are at least 40 to 50 per day. And people start lining up early in the morning.”
In 2018, nearly 4.5 million people got divorced in China, also according to earlier reporting by Sixth Tone, six times the number in 1987. According to the Bangkok Post, 1.3 million couples decided to take advantage of the divorce by mutual consent law when it was first enacted in 2003. After quarantining together for the initial COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, that number rose significantly. Divorce counselors reported to Sixth Tone that couples either had fragile relationships before lockdown which were exacerbated by the togetherness, or they worked so far away from one another that they rarely saw each other as much as they did in those 2-3 months, and in the end, they did not like what they saw.
Another common argument coming out of lockdown was from mothers who shoulder most of the housework and childcare while their husbands work long hours. It seemed like a reasonable arrangement when husbands worked outside the home, even if the mother also works full-time, but then some spouses still didn’t help when they were home all day. To be fair, this debate rages on in many other countries as well.
This may be the reason why lawmakers approved the “30-day cooling-off period” for divorce last May, to curb the numbers as 2020 dragged on. Representative Feng Fan, Vice President of Jiangxi New Social Class Association, told The People’s Daily that “In recent years, the phenomenon of reckless divorce has increased, which is not conducive to the stability of the marriage and family and has caused varying degrees of harm to minor children. The draft improves the divorce system, increases the divorce cooling-off period system, and fixes the divorce cooling-off period institutionally, which can encourage both spouses to more calmly consider how to handle the marriage relationship, which will help establish a good family-style, promote family virtues, and advocate Public order and good customs.”
But lawmakers saw little to no support in the general public for such a law, particularly while discussions are seemingly opening up around domestic violence recently. In fact, soon after the announcement, Lu Hongbing of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the National Lawyers Association had to clarify to the Beiwan New Vision Network that in the matter of domestic abuse, couples could forego the 30-day cooling-off period. Divorces resulting from extramarital affairs, usually handled by lawsuits, are also not included in this new law.
Chinese lawmakers hoped this law would strengthen the values in marriages, but the responses shown in media overall appear that it’s making couples more skeptical about getting married in the first place. Only time will tell if thirty days is enough time to make enough amends that couples seeking divorce won’t go through with it, or have a less desired effect.
KEEP READING: Break the Silence: Who To Call if You are a Victim of Domestic Violence
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