China approves first law against domestic violence

Rural families were allowed two children if the first was a girl, while ethnic minorities were allowed an extra child.

Women’s federations and civil organizations have been pushing for a law to protect victims of domestic violence for more than 10 years.

Public security and national security authorities may also send personnel overseas for counter-terrorism missions, with the approval from the government and agreements from concerned countries, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Also on Sunday, the legislature officially sanctioned an earlier decision by the ruling Communist Party to end China’s one-child policy, allowing all Chinese couples to have two children.

“The country prohibits any form of domestic violence”, reads the new law, which formally defined domestic violence and streamlined the process for obtaining restraining orders – measures long sought by women’s rights groups.

China has the world’s largest population at 1.37 billion, but its working-age population-those aged 15 to 64-is shrinking.

“China spent too many years to enact the basic law on women’s rights protection, it’s really too slow”, Yirenping said in a statement.

The anti-terrorism law is also applicable to other provinces including Tibet which in the past witnessed over 120 self-immolations against tightening of security controls.

The move was hailed as a major liberalization of the three-decades-old restriction, but new figures released in January 2015 suggested that fewer people than expected were taking the plunge and expanding their family.

Despite massive publicity to the lifting of the one child policy being implemented since 1978, the two child rule has evoked less enthusiasm with official surveys indicating that people were not keen to have second child due to heavy costs involved in bringing up another child.

Awards granted to parents who voluntarily have only one child before 2016 will continue, as well as the policy on providing subsidiaries and support when their only child is killed or disabled in an accident, Zhou Meilin, another NHFPC official said.

News Corp Australia Network reports that experts believe the new two-child policy is too little, too late to address the population crisis China will face in the near future.

Wang said the one-child policy was ineffective and unnecessary, since China’s fertility rates were already slowing by the 1980s.