BEIJING, March. 10 -- One quarter of China's marriages between Chinese and foreigners end up in divorces, with Chinese women who traveled great distances as brides not receiving reasonable protection when their marriages broke up.

    Therefore, Ren Yuanzheng, member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), submitted to the ongoing CPPCC a proposal to strengthen the supervisory process of marriages involving foreigners in order to protect the personal rights of Chinese women.

    Following the increase in the number of China's marriages involving foreigners in recent years, there has also been a rise in marital disputes involving foreigners. In 2004, civil affairs departments processed more than 4,000 cases of transnational marriages while at the same time handled nearly 1,000 cases of transnational divorces.

    Ren pointed out in his proposal that Chinese women's rights cannot be guaranteed in marital disputes involving foreigners because of obvious deficiency in China's legal system in terms of protecting the legitimate interests of Chinese citizens after they tied the knot with a foreigner or an emigrant.

    China separately published two items in its regulations governing marriages with foreigners in March and August of 1983. The regulations can only legally confirm the identity of foreigners who marry Chinese citizens but cannot confirm the income of these foreigners or any security conditions that can create a stable life after marriage.

    The rise in marital disputes involving foreigners is attributed to: first, Chinese women and their foreign husbands face many differences in cultural background and properties, which lead to different lifestyles and obstruct communication. When the sense of novelty abates, disputes will naturally arise. Second, Chinese women lack the consciousness of self protection and believe in that one should not wash her dirty linen in public. Therefore, their foreign husbands have little fear when treating them unfairly.

    16 CPPCC members have jointly suggested that transnational marriage registration should adopt stricter rules in examination and approval procedures and require foreigners to show receipts of taxes paid or property deeds to prove they have regular income.

    At the same time, foreigners are requested to submit to marriage registry offices a guarantee that in case of a divorce, they will be responsible for ensuring basic living conditions for their Chinese wives before the formal judgment of divorce is rendered as well as paying the transportation cost for their ex-wives to return to China.

(Source: chinanews.cn)