Activists welcome China’s 1st domestic violence law

The law covers relationships between married couples and between cohabitants, or unrelated people who live together.

The new law was passed by 159 members of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.

The Chinese government continues to clamp down on Internet freedom.

According to the new law, national or worldwide companies activating in China will have to abide by official requests coming from Chinese law enforcement and decrypt encrypted data, if it’s the subject of an official investigation categorized as terrorism.

Chinese officials are becoming anxious about the increase in violence in China’s Western territories, where a group of Islamist separatists known under the name of East Turkestan have planned and carried out various attacks, as Reuters reports.

They said lawmakers balanced the needs to fight terrorism and to protect business interests and public rights.

“This rule accords with the actual work need of fighting terrorism and is basically the same as what other major countries in the world do”, Li told reporters. “This in itself is an important part of protecting human rights”, said Li Shouwei, deputy head of Criinal Law Office, NPC Standing Committee. Foreign experts, however, have argued that there is no proof of foreign ties and that the violence in Xinjiang might be homegrown.

The move may be a great step of China regarding population but since it was declared, praises and criticisms had engulfed the new legislation. Beijing recently refused to renew the press credentials of a French journalist, effectively expelling her, for questioning Beijing’s equating of ethnic conflicts with global terrorism.

The new intelligence center, in addition to coordinating between Chinese government bodies, will also coordinate “trans-regional efforts on counter-terrorism intelligence and information”, according to Xinhua.

Less than two decades past, physical maltreatment had not been even acceptable as reasons for divorce in China, also it wasn’t until 2001 the union law was amended to expressly prohibit domestic violence for the very first time. The new law contains a clause saying that news organizations should aid in the propaganda struggle against terrorism, as well as some general restrictions on what can be reported.