Starting from Saturday, China’s Supreme People’s Court has interpreted the marriage laws in new ways.
These changes have led to the resentment of many Chinese citizens.
Legal explanation says that now, in case of divorce, a large property such as houses and cars, unless it was registered as the joint, remains in the hands of original owner.
In China, husband is usually the owner, because according to tradition his relatives buy a house for the bride and groom before the wedding.
Many people fear that the new version of the marriage law would infringe upon the interests of women.
[Guo Xiang Zhang, a human rights activist from Taiwan]
“It seems astonishing that, if the husband caused divorce because of his unfaithfulness, his wife will get very little.
If the Marriage Act does not indicate that the party who caused the divorce, should indemnify the other party, the wife will be in very bad condition”.
New version of the law on marriage has already the first victims.
Mrs. Zhu from Nanjing is divorcing from her husband, who was unfaithful to her twice.
At the hearing, her lawyer said that under the previous version of the law, his ward was to receive half of the property.
But a week later, the new version of the law was released, and now Zhu is likely to get nothing.
The opponents of the new interpretation of marriage laws say that Chinese regime eliminates the last aspects of traditional culture, such as strong family.
In their view, the law would allow men to be unfaithful to their wives without fear of consequences during a divorce.
In China, traditionally the number of divorces was small and till the present day it is much lower than in Western countries. In 2009, less than 2% of marriages end in divorce.