http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IG18Ad01.html
Jul 18, 2007 SUN WUKONG Divorce, Chinese style By Wu Zhong, China Editor HONG KONG - In China, the production of fake goods is so rampant that there is a saying that "everything can be forged". Indeed, forgery is not limited to manufactured goods. "Faking it" is easily transferred to social and legal arenas, such as divorce court. In recent years, the number of media-reported fake divorce cases has risen, all for various "reasons" or excuses - but they all boil down to m-o-n-e-y. Divorce used to be rare in China until the country began opening its doors for economic reforms in the late 1970s. (Among other regulations that previously made divorce in China difficult was one that required the permission of one's danwei (work unit) superior as part of the procedure.) A new marriage law, effective since October 2003, simplified the process and also boosted the divorce rate. According to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the divorce rate more than doubled from 1985 to 1995, and by 2005, the rate had more than tripled, to 1.37 divorces per 1,000 people. In 2005, 1.79 million couples divorced, while 8.23 million couples ignored the rising divorce rate and tied the knot. And last year, more than 1.9 million couples were divorced in China, an increase of 128,000 couples or 7% from the previous year. Civil-affairs authorities across the country handled 1.29 million of the cases, and 622,000 couples severed the knot courtesy of the courts. This pushed last year's divorce rate up to 1.46 cases per 1,000 people, from 1.37 in 2005, according to the ministry. Like its economy, China's divorce rate still lags far behind that of the United States, which recorded 3.7 divorces out of 1,000 people in 2004. But the speed with which China catches up with the "advanced" countries in this regard is also astonishing, considering its divorce-unfriendly social and cultural traditions. China's economic statistics have long been questioned for their accuracy. What about divorce-rate figures? At first glance there appears no reason to cast doubts, as divorce figures are much easier to compile, just as one plus one equal two. However, if some divorces are not truly heartfelt, then the statistics could have been inflated. As a matter of fact, there are quite a number of "convenience divorce" cases reported by the Chinese media. For instance, the Beijing-based Legal Daily reported that early last year, 86 couples - aged from 20 to 60 - in a small village in Yibin county in the southwestern province of Sichuan got divorced within three months. A sudden wave of mass marital instability? Consider the case of one of the couples, Liu Fangzhai and Ma Xiuyun (not their real names). But just 25 days after they were certified for divorce, they registered for marriage again. So what was the reason for their "divorce"? It happened that the county government wanted to demolish part of the village and requisition the land for a development project. The evicted villagers would be compensated. But the compensation would be granted on the basis of households and, as a married couple, Liu and Ma would be compensated as a single household. But if they were divorced, they would be compensated as two households. No wonder that, like them, all the "divorced" couples were remarried as soon as they received their compensation. Local officials were fully aware of the ruse but they could do nothing about it. "It is legal for the villagers to ask for divorces. We cannot block them. As along as they follow legal procedures, there is no reason for us not to give them divorce certificates," a local official said. And what happened in Yiban, called "collective divorce" by the media, is by no means an isolated case and doesn't just occur in rural areas. In the eastern Shanghai suburb of Pudong, more than a dozen couples were suddenly divorced last July. The area where they lived was targeted for redevelopment and they hoped to be compensated with bigger floor spaces as separated households. For similar reasons, in Renhe town in the suburbs of Chongqing municipality, more than 1,000 couples "collectively" filed for their divorces. And there are other reasons for phony divorces. There is a social-security program in Beijing to help the unemployed, disabled and others in need. The welfare is granted in such a way that it does not increase proportionally in accordance with the number of people in a household. Therefore, the per capita welfare amount for a household with fewer members would be larger than one with more members. This is reasonable because the increase of the "collective" living costs for a household does not increase proportionally with the increase of its members. But this gives an opportunity for some savvy families to seek advantages. Some couples have arranged fake divorces so they (and their children) would be spilt into two households and receive more per capita welfare. According to a survey of 30 households receiving social security in the Fushuijing community in Beijing's Xicheng district, 20 of them were divorced couples who still lived together after they qualified for welfare. Another three couples are in the process of divorce. Other couples have sought divorces for employment's sake. With the reform of state-owned enterprises in recent years, many workers have been laid off - and many of them were married couples. However, local authorities have been required to help them find new employment. Perhaps because the number of laid-off workers has been so large, some local authorities launched new rules that they would only help one partner of a laid-off couple to find new employment. As a result, many unemployed couples rushed to get divorced. It is entirely possible that the publicly reported phony divorce cases are just the tip of the iceberg. So of the 1.9 million divorces in 2006 reported in official statistics, how many were for mutual financial gain? There are no statistics available - much less recorded - on fake breakups, so the number is anybody's guess. Some Chinese academics condemn the fake-divorce phenomenon. "It is disrespectful to the law," said Xia Xueluan, a sociology professor with Peking University. Fake divorce is also fraud and the results could be quite serious, Xia warned. "It will have a negative impact on the government's authority, the dignity of the law and will result in the loss of public property," Xia predicted. Despite such condemnations, one can bet that as long as there are some potential benefits, there will be people who will continue to try to exploit the system, just as in manufacturing, as long as it is profitable, the counterfeit-goods industry will continue to flourish in China. Li Juan, an associate professor with the Chinese University of Political Science and Law, has suggested that authorities close the legal loopholes involving compensations for land requisition, social security and employment to stem the flood of fake breakups. Fake divorces, as well as the unceasing production of phony goods, are evidence of a profound problem facing China. While the country has rapidly turned itself into a bustling commercial society, Western moral norms - such as personal integrity and credit, values that are somehow alien to Chinese tradition but essential to modern social/commercial activities - have yet to take firm root. Hence in China's prevailing money-worshipping climate, everything and anything that can be forged is, simply for the sake of the almighty dollar, or yuan. (Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
