New regulations aimed at guiding the public to rationally view the relationship between marriage and betrothal gifts now in effect in China and with the aim of establishing a healthy, frugal and civilised concept of marriage could be putting an end to an age-old custom.
Today, 1 February, saw enter in to force the “Regulations of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Betrothal Gift Disputes”, adopted by the 1905th meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People’s Court on 13 November, 2023.
Before the nitty gritty of the legal speak, the background to the new regs is based, in part, on grisly developments which illustrate how out of control the system of betrothal in China, also known simply as “bride price”, has recently become.
The most high-profile case occurred on 11 November last year in Liangshan of Sichuan Province. As Global Times reported, it was there that a woman and a relative were murdered by the woman’s ex-boyfriend and his father.
The killing turned out to have been motivated by the woman’s refusal to return the bride price after she decided to break up with the man. She had been given ¥300,000 but repaid just half the amount after the couple split.
As to the specifics of the new regs, Nanjing Daily today reported them as stating, “If one party asks for property through marriage in the name of betrothal gift, and the other party requests return, the People’s Court should support it”.
That said, comprehensive consideration should also be given to factors such as whether the couple live together, the possible involvement of a pregnancy, faults of both parties, etc.
The upshot of all of this is that in cases where a man has provided a property for his bride by way of betrothal, he may now ask for the return of his wife’s legal half share in the event of their divorce.
It also means that a woman can no longer marry a man as sole means to acquire a guaranteed half share in a piece of real estate and then divorce the man immediately afterwards.
While the new regs are virtually sure to eliminate incidents such as the murder in Sichuan, lying behind it is almost certainly another motive; an attempt to tackle China’s recent skyrocketing rates of divorce.
