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An official formerly with the All-China Women's Federation has suggested that China's public security department list "family violence" as a separate item in the 110 alarm system in order to better collect information on domestic violence cases, the People's Daily reported on Thursday.
The proposal was brought by Cui Yu, former vice president of the All-China Women's Federation, and also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
According to the proposal, China's public security organ, as an important department implementing China's Anti-Domestic Violence Law, has taken proactive actions in anti-domestic violence law publicity and training, handling of domestic violence cases, and issuing domestic violence warnings.
However, as there are no special statistics on police handling of domestic violence cases and warnings in accordance with the provisions of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law, this has affected the effective evaluation of the public security organs' domestic violence handling.
At the same time, due to the lack of necessary statistical indicators, some local police officers still have the misconception that "domestic violence is a family matter" while insufficient attention given to domestic violence cases and ineffective handling are still an issue.
The proposal has gained a lot of support among Chinese netizens, many of whom started to connect the proposal with Japanese table tennis star Ai Fukuhara, who has accused her husband Chiang Hung-chieh of "verbal abuse," according to a Wednesday report by Japanese magazine Shūkan Bunshun. On Thursday, Fukuhara issued an apology for recent rumors that she was getting a divorce.
"We all support Ai-chan. She has suffered domestic violence. No need for an apology," one Chinese netizen wrote on Sina Weibo in a post that has gained numerous likes.
The hashtag that "Japanese media claiming Chiang Hung-chieh taking language violence to Ai Fukuhara" and that "Ai Fukuhara issued an apology" have earned 270 million and 450 million views on Sina Weibo respectively.
Beijing-based lawyer Shen Binti told the Global Times on Thursday that domestic violence includes both physical and mental abuse such as verbal abuse and yelling.
Lü Xiaoquan, a lawyer in women rights based in Beijing, told the Global Times that in China, more than 95 percent of reported domestic violence cases are physical abuse cases, while the number of reported cases of mental abuse is still very low.
"Domestic violence is highly secretive. China has a traditional concept that 'family scandals cannot be publicized,' which makes the victim dare not or not want to report the crime," said Lü.
Both law experts express their support of the proposal by explaining that listing domestic violence as a separate statistic index could strengthen domestic violence awareness and the ability of local law enforcement personnel to respond to such cases.
"Domestic violence usually happens unexpectedly and so it can be difficult to obtain evidence. The proposal will help the police who arrive at the scene to collect evidence," said Lü, also suggesting that a risk assessment mechanism be established.
"Building a risk assessment mechanism, such as handing out some questionnaires to the two sides, is convenient for the police to judge the severity of domestic violence, because they can take different adjustment measures according to the results."