Divorces soar as Peking prospers

ECONOMIC reform and rising incomes have led to a sharp increase in the number of divorces in China. A record 909,000 couples split up last year.

A Ministry of Civil Affairs official was quoted in China Daily: 'Causes of the increasing divorces are various and complicated, what with the fast changes in society and the shifting of people's thinking about what constitutes a good marriage.' The ministry said a further 500,000 people last year initiated divorce proceedings but did not finalise them.

Between 1989 and 1991 the annual number of divorces was steady at around 300,000. Then in 1992 it jumped to 850,000, followed by last year's more modest increase. About one-third of Chinese divorces are arranged by out-of-court civil settlements; the rest end up in the increasingly busy civil courts. Last year, 9 million couples got married.

Rising incomes mean that couples no longer have to stay together for financial reasons. Even the official Women's Federation says that rising divorce is one aspect of greater freedom for women. There are six main reasons for divorce these days in China: the newly wealthy sometimes divorce their old spouses; alternatively, some people want a divorce because they have found a richer person to marry. Extra-marital affairs are now a common reason to split up; as are arguments about household chores and finances.

The growing number of people going abroad to work or study, but leaving their families behind in China, also accounts for divorces after people 'simply stopped sending messages home'. In rural areas, where marriages are often arranged, couples who later found they did not like each other are now divorcing.

A Peking woman, aged 24, said: 'Generally the opportunity for divorce is a benefit for women. If they feel they don't love their husband, they have the right to seek real love. Secondly, even if abandoned by their husband, the divorce is an end for their suffering. It also brings problems for families with children because divorce has the main effect on children.'

The rising number of divorces also has a bearing on the country's strict birth control policies. People embarking on second marriages can have a child if one of the partners is childless.