More babies, fewer divorces, and sexual harassment: Takeaways from China’s new civil code

Chinese lawmakers on Thursday, the final day of this year’s Two Sessions political meetings, passed the country’s first civil code — a legislative package aimed at governing almost every aspect of Chinese people’s lives, including marriage, property, and personal rights. The legislation, which consists of 84 chapters and 1,260 articles, is slated to take effect on January 1, 2021.

As the centerpiece of the push by senior leader Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 to reform China’s legal system by 2020, the civil code has been in the works since 2014. Before Thursday’s passage, China had tried four times since 1949 to pass a civil code, but these previous attempts were unsuccessful due to circumstantial reasons, such as political turmoil and rapidly changing social conditions. Since the 1980s, China has adopted a different approach, creating stand-alone civil laws to regulate specific areas of life.

For the most part, the new civil code is an amalgamation of existing laws, but it also contains a series of additions and changes that could make significant differences in Chinese people’s lives.

Here are five key takeaways worth highlighting from the legislation:

1. China wants more babies and fewer divorces

In the legislation’s marriage and family section, there is no mention of any laws regarding China’s family planning policies, which used to be part of the country’s Marriage Law. While the Chinese Constitution still stipulates that couples “have the obligation to practice family planning,” many demographics experts and observers believe that the omission in the civil code is an indication of China’s determination to further lift birth restrictions in the future.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to deter what Chinese lawmakers called (in Chinese) “impulsive divorces,” the new legislation requires couples filing for separation to wait 30 days before their requests can be processed. During the so-called “one-month cool-off period,” either party can withdraw their petition.

Before being signed into law, the measure was a recommendation implemented in some Chinese provinces. When the civil code was in the stage of seeking public feedback, this particular article faced strong opposition from people who feared that lengthening the divorce process would put victims of domestic violence in greater danger.

The passage of the new legislation has triggered a new wave of backlash from critics who feel that their opinions aren’t heard and valued. “The lawmakers are using legal tools to interfere with individuals‘ rights of marriage freedom. Public opinions are nothing to them. Everyone knows who will benefit from the law,” a Weibo user wrote (in Chinese), suggesting that the law was mostly driven by the government’s desire to lower the country’s rapidly growing divorce rates.

2. Better protection of individuals’ “rights to reside”

Under the new civil code, a property owner has the power to grant another individual the right to live on their property for a period of time or for life. This rule is useful in two cases in particular.  

• For seniors considering a reverse mortgage, which allows them to borrow against their home’s equity so they get cash without selling their home, the new rule about residency will ease their worries about being evicted by lenders before death.
• Second, same-sex couples, whose relationships do not have legal recognition in China, can give their partners “the rights to reside” in their property for life as a way to prevent legal disputes raised by their families after death.

3. The government has recognized the problem of sexual harassment and abuse  

In the past few years, sexual harassment and assault have received unprecedented attention in China following a string of high-profile allegations against men in positions of power. For the first time in China’s history of law enforcement, the new civil code has a section dedicated to laws concerning sexual assault and improprieties.

Under the new law, victims of childhood sexual abuse are allowed to sue their perpetrators when they reach 18, even if the assualts happened years ago. According to Sixth Tone, the rule will “effectively close a loophole whereby abusers would escape punishment because the statute of limitations had elapsed by the time their victims came forward.”

In another landmark change, the new legislation stipulates that “schools, enterprises, and government offices” need to implement measures to prevent and prohibit abuse of power, which often goes hand in hand with sexual harassment and assault.