Hitting or scolding your child will soon be illegal in China, but will the new law stick?
- Parents in China will no longer be allowed to use physical or psychological violence to teach their children how to behave, under a soon-to-be-passed law
- However, a parent and an academic question how well the law will be implemented. Police have had trouble enforcing an earlier ban on corporal punishment
China will soon join dozens of other countries in banning parents from spanking their children.
While corporal punishment was outlawed in China in 1986, the practice remains widespread, particularly in rural areas. A new family education law prohibits the use of violence to “educate” children on how to behave. The law is awaiting approval by China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.
Authorities have until now struggled to implement the 1986 law. Families have argued that they are only hitting their offspring to teach them how to behave, reflecting long-held views about child-rearing.
“Spare the rod, spoil the child” is still a mantra many parents in China live by, believing that if they do not discipline an unruly child, they will grow up to become a spoiled brat.
In one recent case, in January 2020, neighbours reported to police the abuse of a five-year-old boy in Nanning, a city in Guangxi near the Vietnamese border. The boy was covered in deep scars from the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, a single parent, according to a Nanning TV report.
