China proposes law to make it easier to register marriages, harder to divorce

Weibo

15/08/2024 06:22

HONG KONG, Aug 15 (Reuters) - China has put together a
revised draft law that will make it simpler for couples to
register their marriage, while filing for divorce will become
tougher, a move that drew scorn from netizens and became a top
trending online topic on Thursday.
    The draft, aimed at building a "family friendly society",
was released by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs this week for
public feedback. People are able to submit comments to the
ministry until Sept 11, it said.
    It comes as policymakers struggle to encourage young couples
to get married and have children after the country's population
fell for two consecutive years.  
    The proposed law removes regional restrictions for marriage
seen in the previous law where marriages had to be handled at
the household registration location of the couple. 
    Divorces will be subject to a 30-day cooling off period
during which, if either party is unwilling to divorce, they may
withdraw the application, terminating the divorce registration
process, the draft said.  
    "It's easy to get married, but hard to divorce, What a
stupid rule," wrote a netizen on Chinese social media platform
Weibo  9898.HK , attracting tens of thousands of likes. 
    The regulation aims to "promote the importance of marriage
and family," reduce impulsive divorces, uphold social stability,
and better protect legitimate rights of the parties involved,
Jiang Quanbao, a professor at the Institute for Population and
Development Studies at Xi'an Jiaotong University, told the
state-backed Global Times.
    The number of Chinese couples who got married in the first
half of this year fell by 498,000 from a year earlier to 3.43
million, the lowest since 2013, as more young people put off
getting hitched, official data showed. 
    Marriage is typically seen as a prerequisite for having
children due to widespread policies, including one that requires
parents to present a marriage certificate to register the baby
and receive benefits.
    Many young Chinese are choosing to stay single or put off
getting married due to worries over job security and their
future outlook as growth in the world's second largest economy
slows.

 (Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing newsroom; Editing by
Raju Gopalakrishnan)
 ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 3462 7709;))