Editor’s notes: 2015 was witness to many life-changing alterations in people's daily lives, such as the introduction of China's first anti-domestic violence law, the adjustment of the family planning policy, the further revision on statutory taxation and the introduction of new residence permits.

Sun Xiaomei, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) [photo by Hexun.com]

Those decisions were made by China's top legislative branch, but who represents the motive force behind these changes? Is there anything that can still be improved?

Sun Xiaomei, a campaigner who has fought hard for the introduction of better laws to protect women in abusive relationships, gave her answers. She suggested the introduction of an expert witness system, a legal system that relies heavily on expert testimony in most civil and criminal cases, particularly for domestic violence, during the "Two Sessions" in Beijing.

"It is a late answer to the question of domestic violence in China," said Sun Xiaomei, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), as her proposal in drafting China's first anti-domestic violence law was finally approved after 26 years, Beijing News reported.

Much to the delight of Sun Xiaomei, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council publicized the draft of a new bill to tackle domestic violence in China on November 25, 2014, and its first law has taken effect on March 1, 2016.

30% of Chinese women: victims of domestic violence

Q: The anti-domestic violence law has taken effect on March 1, 2016. How do you evaluate the law in terms of its legal position and significance as China seeks to advance the rule of law?

A: It is the country's first independent and comprehensive law on anti-domestic violence. The more a country shows care for its vulnerable groups, the more a country tries to protect its human rights. Women and children have long been the victims of domestic violence. Therefore, the implementation of the anti-domestic violence law reflects China’s efforts to protect the rights and interests of the vulnerable. Furthermore, the family is the fundamental cell of society and domestic violence is one of the main causes for a broken family and an unstable society. The law is of great benefit to the construction of harmonious families and society.

Q: There are some regulations and rules on domestic violence in China that are not required and included in a specific law. What do you think about that?

A: Rules and regulations on domestic violence are required and included in the Marriage Law, the Criminal Law and the Law of the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women. However, clear definitions, such as what exactly domestic violence is, have not yet been described. It's the same case as in its protective measures, jurisdiction over domestic violence and evidentiary adjudication.

Q: How did China deal with domestic violence cases in the past?

A: Due to a lack of uniformity and clear regulation to define the domestic violence cases, results varied from each other as the same or similar cases were brought into different courts. What's more, more controversy was raised over what the case is and what the crime should be.

Nowadays, the anti-domestic violence law has already addressed the issue.

Q: How about the current situation of domestic violence in China?

A: According to official statistics, 30 percent of Chinese women have suffered from domestic violence in a total of 27 million families and 90 percent of domestic violence perpetrators are men. Every year, almost 10,000 families break up due to domestic violence.

Q: How about the changes in China's domestic violence?

A: In the 1990s, domestic violence only happened between opposite-sex couples in a real-life marriage. The sheer scale of the cross-border movements of people has led to a mass migration, where family types have been changing with the increase of single-parent households, remarriages and extended families. What's more, more and more unmarried couples prefer to exist in cohabitation, and trouble follows. Violence in cohabiting relationships emerged and became a real social problem.

In addition, these factors that caused domestic violence have ranged from male chauvinism to economic disputes. Meanwhile, victims began to foster and enhance their awareness to fight against domestic violence. In the beginning, those victims were reluctant to tell the truth about domestic violence and most of them regarded it as a skeleton in their closets. But now, they don’t want to be the victim, suffer insults or endure hardships. Some even decide to call the police for help.

Stepping into Action

More than 120 countries have domestic violence laws.

Q: You have been studying the law and promoting its legalization for more than 20 years. Why have you paid so much attention to anti-domestic violence laws?

A: It was in 1990 that I started to engage myself in China's domestic violence. At that time, we did not call it "violence" but "an attack from husband" or "a hit to the wife," because many of us didn’t know what domestic violence was and couldn’t accept the "attack" or "hit" as "violence."

In 1993, the Maple Counseling Hotline, an institute that serves women's issues, launched an event to have an interview with 60 victims of domestic violence, half of whom were from urban areas and the others rural. I was in charge of the research on 30 rural victims. A surprise find showed that rural women had a higher probability of being beat than those in urban areas. Those rural women thought it was too common to mention. Some of them responded with impatience, and even asked us why we like to trouble them to look into the cause.

In the completion of the research, I decided to focus my attention on domestic violence as my key research project.

Q: What left a deep impression on you during your research?

A: A case regarding non-marital cohabitation violence heard in Zhejiang last year left me with a lasting impression. I remembered that a female cohabitant killed the male as she had long suffered her partner's abuse. The female cohabitant refused to apologize to the male's family and thought it was a well-deserved punishment. In the court, her lawyer asked her to apologize to carry a minimum penalty, but she refused again. At that time, I really wondered what kind of violence the young girl had suffered that pushed her to do so.

Q: Could you introduce more about the legalization of anti-domestic violence laws in other countries?

A: More than 120 countries in the world have legalized the law, about 80 of which embrace a specific law on domestic violence against women. The establishment of the specific law about anti-domestic violence is picking up momentum, and the international community will follow the trend.

Q: Could you give any examples as you mentioned the specific law about anti-domestic violence carried by other countries?

A: Some countries set up a national domestic violence registry, where victims' information could be listed. Some other countries provide an emergency protective order (EPO) for domestic violence victims, and they regard it as a type of restraining order that can be put into effect immediately. That means police could break in as soon as they have received the call from victims. Then, women would be kept from violence. This is the same scene that appeared in a Chinese movie the "Gua Sha Treatment" that was released in 2001, where victims were no longer hurt as the EPO entered into force.

The Highlight of the Law

Part of a victim's safety plan may be a protective order.

Q: How many types of domestic violence are there at present?

A: Domestic violence can take a number of forms, including physical, mental, sexual violence and others. Physical abuse can include hitting, biting, slapping, battering and other means. Emotional abuse involves invalidating or deflating the victims' sense of self-worth and/or self-esteem. Emotional abuse often takes the form of constant criticism, name-calling, injuring the victims' relationship with his or her children, or interfering with the victims' abilities.

We define domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Actually, the definition mainly refers to physical and mental abuse, excluding sexual abuse. And I think sexual abuse is also a major part of domestic violence.

Q: Is there anything that highlights China's anti-domestic violence law?

A: I think that a personal safety plan regarding a protection order system has caught people's attention. The plan means that victims could go to court to file for a protection order against domestic violence. The protection order system is one of legal ways to perform judicial acts in many countries. As of 2008, the system had been piloted in a few grassroots courts. According to incomplete statistics, the pilot courts had issued almost 500 personal protective orders until February 2014. 98 percent of victims have benefited from the system.

Q: Could you explain the debate on whether the non-marital cohabitation violence should be covered in the law or not?

A: It really took an unexpected turn. In November 2014, the State Council publicized its Public's Opinions on the Draft Law against Domestic Violence, where cohabitation relationship violence was not covered.

Many people think that cohabitants have not formed a family or married couple yet, and that cohabitation relationship violence should be defined as social violence. In my opinion, with the development of society and the change of family styles, cohabitation relationship violence should not be excluded from the anti-domestic violence law.

Luckily, cohabitation relationship violence was mentioned and covered into the Opinions on the Handling of Criminal Cases of Domestic Violence in Accordance with the Law on March 2, 2015, which was jointly issued by the Supreme Court of China and the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China.

However, in October 2015, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress submitted its revised version of the draft law about anti-domestic violence which excluded cohabitation relationship violence.

I, together with several NPC deputies, wondered why cohabitation relationship violence should be excluded, and that our legalization branch should give a well-considered opinion about it. We all think that cohabitation relationship violence remains untouched by anti-domestic violence laws while our laws should forbid violence in any form. It was two months later that the Standing Committee of National People's Congress approved its second revised version of the draft law regarding anti-domestic violence, which pointed out that cohabitants, in addition to family members, could refer to the anti-domestic violence law.

Q: How about the implementation of anti-domestic violence laws in social practice?

A: It seems so practicable. For example, at first, the law stipulated that it is only relatives that could help the victims apply for the personal protective order. Later, we suggested that the public security and local residents' committee should enjoy the right to do so. In the end, we came to know that relatives of victims, public security, women's federations and social aid institutions were all among the list.

Carrying it forward

Sun submitted her six proposals on anti-domestic violence from 2009 to 2014.

Q: What kind of experience did you have when you conducted your research and promoted the legalization of the law?

A: In the 1990s, I paid much attention to social research and data collection. In 2001, I submitted my proposal to the Fourth Session of the Ninth CPPCC National Committee with suggestions centered on preventing violence against women. It was China's first proposal on domestic violence. To speed up the pace toward legalizing the anti-domestic violence law, I submitted six suggestions from 2009 to 2012 since I was elected as an NPC deputy. It was less than three years before the law took effect in 2015.

Here I want to say that it was not me but the women's federations, social organizations and the NPC that contributed to the law. The implementation of the law is the epitome of advancing the rule of law in China.

Q: Everything is hard in the beginning. Is there anything difficult that you were faced with at the beginning of research?

A: In 1993, I handed in my research paper to the department that used to be in charge of domestic violence. Unfortunately, it mislaid my manuscript of 30,000 words, of which I had no copies.

In 1997, in order to better understand the audience's ideas opposing domestic violence, I made an investigation on 800 people. However, I ran into trouble as we began to make the research. Some perpetrators of the 800 research respondents who might have beaten their partners threatened us with death.

Q: Have you ever experienced any setbacks during your efforts?

A: The All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) rejected my suggestion on preventing violence against women in 2001, which really confused me as the ACWF has always contributed to ending violence against women and girls in China.

In 2009 and 2011, I received a reply from the NPC, which had been revising the basic law. The reply showed that people could refer to the Marriage Law or the Law of the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women when confronted with domestic violence. Some departments even thought it was unnecessary to establish a specific law to deal with family trifles. In fact, I was really unsatisfied with their answers.

In 2012, I submitted my motion again. Luckily, my motion was accepted and brought into the national legalization plan.

Prospects for the anti-domestic violence law

The implementation of the law depends on the level of legal awareness and details.

Q: What tips should be reminded during its implementation as the law takes effect?

A: Firstly, our country should enhance people's legal awareness on anti-domestic violence.

Secondly, it is paramount that we collect evidence when suffering from violence. Victims should know how to collect evidence and what kinds of evidence should be collected in order to prove that you have really suffered from long or severe domestic abuse.

Last but not least, the one who can apply for the protection order should know how to work with public security. We need to launch a few EPO training courses for grassroots police forces.

Q: Do you have any motions to submit during the "Two Sessions" this year? Are they still related to domestic violence?

A: I have a motion to submit this year and it still relates to domestic violence. I am moving to introduce the expert witness system while a domestic violence case is being heard in the court. Domestic violence is critical in this type of criminal case. Expert witnesses, as an assistant to the fact-finder, could help put victims or perpetrators' ideas or acts into shape. Expert witnesses, including judges and procurators, might learn more about the victims' mental processes and feelings about domestic violence, such as, is there anything reasonable about the fact that victims of domestic violence killed their partners? I think expert witnesses could help us find the truth and help define the right way to eliminate domestic violence.