The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs has unveiled a revised draft law that would make it simpler to register marriages and potentially more difficult to divorce. The proposed changes, billed as helping to create a “family friendly society,” are generally viewed as an attempt to address a looming demographic crisis partly fueled by the nation’s plummeting birth rate. The draft law, which is open for public comment until September 11, has attracted intense public interest and a flood of online commentary, much of it anxious or skeptical.

The draft maintains the existing minimum 30-day “cooling-off” period before a couple can divorce, a controversial requirement first introduced via China’s 2020 Civil Code, but now makes it easier for one partner to unilaterally halt divorce proceedings during that period. When the “cooling-off” period first went into effect in 2021, it was widely condemned for being overly intrusive, for dragging out divorce proceedings, and for endangering victims of domestic violence by creating yet another legal hurdle for those seeking to escape abusive marriages. Last week, the hashtag “#Either Party Can Halt Divorce Proceedings During Cooling-Off Period” became a Weibo hot search topic, attracting 120 million views and 80,000 comments within a single day. CDT Chinese editors have collected some of the many Weibo comments about how this new rule could complicate, and even impede, divorce proceedings:

gousheng1：Why not implement a marriage cooling-off period? During the cooling-off period, if either party doesn’t wish to get married, they can apply to rescind their marriage registration application, and the authorities will terminate the marriage proceedings.

没人能在我的美颜滤镜里打败我：And will they be glad once all the women who were willing to get married are killed off during the cooling-off period?

让我在你耳边qia一朵扶桑花：Why not just ban divorce? Once a couple gets married, they’re bound for life. Would that make [the government] happy?

气势如虹YRH：Oh, this is fantastic. I get the feeling that no matter how loudly we shout, complain, or make demands, [the government] will pretend not to hear and just go on doing exactly what they want. Suit yourselves, then, but you don’t have to go through the motions of posting it online and pretending to ask for our opinions.

蓝眼睛的小米女王：If one spouse commits domestic violence, or gambles or goes to prostitutes, then the couple can’t divorce unless the party at fault consents to the divorce. At that rate, a victim of domestic violence could be dead, past their “first seven days” of mourning rites before the cooling-off period has even ended.

解开锁：After so many years of anti-fraud propaganda, why is marriage the one loophole they’ll allow? They’re tricking people by making it easy to get in, and hard to get out.

y多晒太阳：It’s already outrageous that there’s a cooling-off period for divorce, but making it so that one party can unilaterally halt divorce proceedings during that period means that spouses who initiate divorce are going to be driven to their deaths. They’ll stoop to anything to reduce the divorce rate. [Chinese]

In another change—this one intended to make marriage registration easier by removing regional restrictions—couples registering their marriages will no longer have to show a household registration booklet (户口簿, hùkǒubù), nor will they be limited to filing their marriage paperwork in the location specified by their household registration. A hashtag on this alteration, too, became a hot search topic on Weibo: within a day of its appearance, the hashtag had garnered more than 600 million views and 370,000 comments. Some of the commenters had no problem with the new rule, per se, but noted that doing away with the household registration requirement would do little to incentivize more people to marry. Others, however, expressed concern that relaxing the rules in this way might lead to a rise in bride-trafficking and forced marriages, people being duped or coerced into marriage, or young people entering into impulsive marriages. A number of netizens also wondered why, since the government seemed to be cracking down on “impulsive divorces,” why it didn’t apply the same standards to deterring “impulsive marriages.” CDT Chinese editors have compiled some of the comments from Weibo users about changes that would make it easier to get married, but harder than ever to divorce:

牛顿的苹果你把握不住：Seems like this will make divorce more difficult, and marriage more awful.

火炎焱燚198410：Now there’s one less rationale for the existence of the household registration system.

小树叶大树枝：At some point, you won’t even need an ID card to get married. A couple can just show up and write down their ID card numbers.

2024花花大熊猫：From now on, getting married will be more convenient, allowing everyone to “act first and repent later.” (But just think how difficult and painful divorce is!)

脸脸不可爱：Will they be offering doorstep service in the future? They can bring the official stamp right to your door.

勒壹里：Ah, so all this time the biggest obstacle to me getting married was household registration, haha.

自贡条哥：Hasn’t it occurred to them that this will make it even easier to force trafficked women into marriage?

弓箭D盾牌：They’ll try anything to increase the birth rate.

古月至秦月月鸟：This is like consulting a podiatrist to treat a headache. [Chinese]

It remains unclear how these proposed legal revisions will affect marriage, divorce, and childbirth rates in China. The reasons for falling marriage and birth rates are complex, touching on gender roles and gender inequality, economic uncertainty, socio-political pressures, and generational shifts in how people view marriage, parenthood, family, social responsibilities, and individual fulfillment. Thus far, women have been largely unmoved by the government’s calls to raise the birth rate by having more children, but official pro-natalist propaganda continues unabated, and some localities have even ramped up their matchmaking efforts.

It seems likely that the Party-state will continue to have little space for unmarried women, feminists, LGBTQ+ individuals, and others whose approach to family differs in the slightest from the rigidly traditional orthodoxy promoted under Xi Jinping. For more on these issues, see CDT’s in-depth interview with Leta Hong Fincher on the vicissitudes of women’s rights in China over the past decade.