A Chinese man has been ordered to pay his ex-wife 50,000 yuan (US$7,750) for years of unpaid housework, in a landmark divorce case that has sparked furious debate in China.
Under a new civil code that came into effect this year, divorcing spouses have the right to request compensation if they bore more responsibilities at home.
The wife, surnamed Wang, told the Beijing court that during five years of marriage she “looked after the child and managed household chores, while Chen [her husband] did not care about or participate in any other household affairs besides going to work.”
She filed a claim for extra compensation for housework and childcare duties, a Feb. 4 court statement showed.
The court ruled that Wang had indeed taken on more household responsibilities and should receive 50,000 yuan plus sole child custody, and an additional 2,000 yuan in alimony per month.
Feng Miao, the presiding judge, said that the division of property related to “tangible property,” of which it was impossible to include housework.
Housework “for example, can improve the ability of the other spouse to achieve personal, individual academic growth, and this is not reflected in the tangible property,” Feng said.
After local media reported this week that Wang had appealed — having originally requested 160,000 yuan in compensation — the ruling sparked widespread online debate over the value of women’s unpaid domestic work.
As of yesterday, the hashtag “stay-at-home wife receives 50,000 yuan housework compensation” had more than 570 million views on the microblogging platform Sina Weibo.
More than 427,000 people responded to an online poll by Chinese media outlet Pheonix Weekly, which asked if the compensation was right, wrong, too small, or too big. Almost 94 percent said it was right, but not enough, with commenters saying it underestimated the job of stay-at-home wives and mothers.
“Women should never be stay-at-home wives... When you divorce, you are left with nothing whatsoever. 50,000 yuan in housework compensation is bullshit,” one comment read.
“A full-time nanny could cost more than this for half a year, are women’s youth and feelings this cheap?” another read.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has estimated that Chinese women spend nearly four hours doing unpaid labor daily — 2.5 times that of men and higher than the average.
Marriage breakups have surged over the past two decades in China, as divorce laws were liberalized and women became more financially independent — to the concern of Beijing, which is trying to boost birthrates in an aging population.
Additional reporting by The Guardian
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages