WHAT DO THE RISING DIVORCE RATES IN CHINA MEAN?
According to China Daily and Times of India, the divorce rate in China as of 2009 is on the rise and climbing furiously. The 2010 divorce trends in China show no signs of abating as compared to 2009. The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs in China apparently declared that nearly 800,000 people filed for divorce in the first half of 2010. What the hay is going on? Could it be as simple as a change in the divorce laws?
Instead of dealing with complicated court procedures, couples can now seek divorces at civil affairs offices. Simplified marriage registration procedures have also aroused people’s sense of “merry meet, merry part,” according to Xu. Crienglish.com
Times of India:
There was ten per cent raise in the country’s divorce rate across the country with Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Chongqing municipality topping the list, official ‘China Daily’ reported on Monday.The report did not say whether the divorce rate was high among the Muslim Uyghurs or Chinese Hans in Xinjiang, which witnessed tensions between the two communities last years.
Shanghai ranked sixth and Beijing eighth in divorce cases. A report by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in June this year revealed that there was an annual rise of 7.6 per cent in the number of divorces from 2005 to 2009, with 2.47 million couples divorcing in 2009.
But some argue that it is the change in divorce laws that is the culprit. Apparently, it’s become incrementally easier to get a divorce in China.
What can I say? It’s not all a losing proposition. Indeed, some argue that in spite of the rising divorce rates, that China still has a very low divorce rate when compared to the West.
