GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
An insight into the workings of Divorce Courts in China is provided by a court in China that has awarded a single father 30,000 yuan (US$4,400) in compensation for raising his two children alone after the breakdown of his marriage. The man, identified by the pseudonym Zhang Wei, from Huizhou in Guangdong Province, Southern China has raised his two children alone for the last eight years after he and his wife, surnamed Lin, split up. The couple stayed separated but only filed for divorce earlier this year.
After the birth of their second child the marriage broke down and Lin moved out of the family home. Their two children stayed with Zhang who has raised them alone since, the Guangzhou Daily reported. Zhang told the court that he had taken on sole responsibility for the couple’s children and the housework. He said Lin did not provide any support, financial or otherwise, for the children.
The husband’s case has attracted significant attention in China, with many saying that the sum he received in the divorce was too low for the house work involved. During the divorce proceedings Lin requested that custody of the children remain with Zhang, and that he continue to support them financially. However, Zhang refused these terms and requested 100,000 yuan (about US$15,000) from Lin as compensation for raising the children alone. An attempt at mediation through the court failed to reach a compromise.
The court ruled that Lin must pay a one-off lump sum of 30,000 yuan to Zhang for the years he had spent raising the children. Zhang agreed to be the children’s sole provider after the divorce and did not seek ongoing maintenance from Lin. “The value of housework should be respected, thus it’s necessary to provide financial compensation to the one who takes on the bulk of it during a marriage,” Judge Long Haipeng told the Nanfang Daily after the divorce terms were agreed by Zhang and Lin.
#divorcemediation #maritalbreakdowninchina #familyrightsinchina
