Home Quaratines Lead to Domestic Violence Spike

A poster spreads awareness of domestic violence

With people in China stuck at home under quarantine for over a month, there are jokes that the country's birth rate may spike in nine months with people not having much to do other than eat and sleep...

However, at the same time there has been an appalling increase in domestic violence, and the authorities aren't doing much to deal with what has been a crime since 2016 with the anti-domestic violence law.

There are no nationwide statistics, only numbers and anecdotes from rights activists who are trying to help victims get away from their abusers. But physically escaping can be almost impossible when cities are under lockdown and no one is allowed to get out.

Community checkpoints make it hard for victims to escape

Wan Fei is a retired police officer who founded an anti-domestic violence nonprofit in Jingmen in Hubei province. He says the reports of domestic violence have nearly doubled since cities were put under lockdown.

Since February 27, the police station in Jianli county that administers Jingmen, had received 162 reports of domestic violence in February -- three times more than the 47 reported during the same month last year. The number of cases reported in January also doubled compared to the same period in the previous year.

"The epidemic has had a huge impact on domestic violence," said Wan. "According to our statistics, 90 percent of the causes of violence are related to the coronavirus epidemic."

As of today China has over 80,000 confirmed cases, and over 2,900 deaths.

He believes the fear and anxiety from being quarantined for a long period of time as well as the economic stress it has put on families has resulted in the uptick of domestic violence cases.

Feng Yuan says the police should do more to help victims

But at the same time because the epidemic is being prioritized, other social services are being shunted by the wayside.

Wan reports there are shelters for victims of domestic violence in other parts of the country that have been turned into homeless shelters by the authorities, leaving victims with no where to go.

Feng Yuan, who is the director of Beijing-based women's rights nonprofit Weiping, says they have received a significant number of domestic violence-related cases since Chinese New Year a little over a month ago, around the time many cities went into lockdown.

She said the police should be more proactive in registering victims' complaints instead of having excuses not to help them.

"The police can detain people for insulting [respiratory disease expert] Zhong Nanshan online and arrest someone for not wearing a mask on the street. It looks to me like the epidemic has not affected their law enforcement capacity," Feng says. "If they use the epidemic as an excuse to not deal with domestic violence cases, that's not acceptable."

Weiping is reaching out to victims by livestreaming a workshop to let them know what to do if they become a victim or witness domestic violence.

"It's very important to let domestic violence survivors know their rights, and as witnesses we should all give them confidence and support," Feng says.

Another good reason to hope China can contain the coronavirus as soon as possible...

Fact of the Day: 70% Divorces Filed by Chinese Women

More than 70 percent of divorces in China are filed by women

In the age of #MeToo or #mitu in China, it's hard to see how attitudes towards women will change much in this patriarchal society when men believe they have or are entitled to more power than women.

Although Chairman Mao Zedong claimed that "women hold up half the sky", in reality it's not true at all.

In 1986, 460,000 couples registered for divorce, while 20 years later the number jumped to 4.15 million.

A new report that uses divorce statistics from 2016 and 2017 by the Supreme People's Court shows two things. The first is that women filed more than 70 percent of the divorce cases in the past two years, with most couples splitting up after three years of marriage.

The second is that domestic violence was the second most common problem, cited as the major factor in 15 percent of divorces. "Incompatibility" was cited for 75 percent of divorce cases.

Tencent News did a survey in 2016 about the high divorce rates. Some 70,000 internet users gave their responses which found the following: About 60 percent of male respondents had cheated on their partners in a relationship, while it was around 30 percent for women respondents.

Another interesting result was that one-third of male respondents didn't think sex with prostitutes was cheating. What is it then? Having an intimate playmate? A way to work off stress? It's paid so it doesn't count?

Ah, men. Always finding an excuse to have it their way...

Finally Free -- For Now

The five women activists who were released on bail Monday evening

After months of lobbying internationally, including by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden, as well as Chinese rights campaigners, five women activists were finally released on bail yesterday evening.

They were detained on the weekend of March 8, International Women's Day, when they were planning to demonstrate against sexual harassment on public transport. They were picked up on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble".

The campaign to get them released that featured the tag #FreeTheFive included strong words from American presidential candidate Hilary Clinton and Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations.

The quintet were released because prosecutors did not immediately decide to press criminal charges, and instead police asked that the five be charged with organizing a crowd to disturb public order.

Wei Tingting, 26, Wang Man, 32, Zheng Churan, 25, Li Tingting, 25 and Wu Rongrong, 30 have been released on bail, but would be monitored by the police for one year, and could not travel without informing the authorities. They could be detained by police at anytime and interrogated further.

On Friday, Kerry made a statement saying China should "immediately and unconditionally" free the five women.

"Each and every one of us has the right to speak out against sexual harassment and the many other injustices that millions of women and girls suffer around the world each and every day," he said. "We strongly support the efforts of these activists to make progress on these challenging issues, and we believe that Chinese authorities should also support them, not silence them."

On Monday afternoon, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that China "lodged representations" with the US over those comments and that "the Chinese legal authorities are handling this case in accordance with the law."

The actual campaign that they were organizing through We Chat was supposed to have people handing out leaflets and stickers on buses and subway carriages to call attention to sexual harassment on public transportation.

This crackdown on activists who weren't doing anything political, and instead trying to promote a civil society, is quite harsh, and perhaps is meant to scare other rights campaigners from continuing their activities. Or does the government consider them a threat because they are pointing out the truth?

These five women are not new to activism -- in 2012 they campaigned for more public toilets for women, and in 2013-14, campaigned against domestic violence.

They are only doing what they believe is right and just, though they are sticking their necks out to do so.

We are relieved they are released, though not unconditionally is worrying. These women are pushing for civil society, and they are trying to do this through non-violent means. So why detain them? What they are doing is for the good of everyone, and doesn't the Chinese government want its society to look just and equal?

Beijing is only creating more embarrassment for itself domestically and on the international stage...