Proposal Made To Sue Mistresses For Causing Divorces

From Sina:

If a couple divorces due to a “extramarital relationship”, can the non-guilty party claim damages/demand compensation from the “Little Third”*? On March 11, deputy of the National Congress Ma Lan submitted the proposal to alter the “People’s Republic of China Marriage Law”: Propose that when a household is broken, the third party may be sought for damages.

* 小三, xiao san, “the third party”, this may have originated from Liba.

holding-hands-behind-back

Here is a Sina poll:

How do you view claiming damages from the third party legislation proposal?

12,524 total votes [at 2009 March 13, 1:34am]

Approve, the third party destroying other people’s marriages should bear responsibility, and this will discourage extra-marital relationships.
69.9% (8,756 votes)

Oppose, the reasons for the appearance of a third party are numerous and complex, and there should not be such a simple sweeping approach.
26.9% (3,365 votes)

Hard to say.
3.2% (403 votes)

Comments from Sina:

千千结:

One palm cannot make a sound [one hand cannot clap], so from who should that mistress claim damages?
Ridiculous.

博客网友:

Using morality to bind people is strangling people’s sexuality. However, not doing this would be to strangle families. Yun!

程信予:

Yet more lei this year. This year’s two conferences [NPC and CPPCC] will not be satisfactory unless they lei some people to death.

船长a:

In ancient times, this was handled as adultery.
In modern times, this has become so open, it truly confounding. Is this society progressing or going backwards?

姝然06:

I believe a third party is a type of emotional necessity. What humanity most cannot control is their own emotions, right? emoticons|E___6248ZHYXSIB|汗~emoticons|E___6248ZHYXSIB|汗~emoticons|E___6248ZHYXSIB|汗~

whj000002008:

If women are not ruthless, the men will not be faithful, so carefully watching over your own men is the inescapable truth!
If your own man lacks a sense of responsibility, yet you yourself lack enough charm and cannot manage your own man, how are you able to manage your own happy marriage?
With this kind of problem, what could the law do?

夏季紫罗兰:

The third party’s money is still basically the man’s money. :-)

博客网友:

Faint to death, this is basically like a student blaming the teacher for not being accepted to college,
or blaming the home builder for your house catching on fire.
This is missing the point and grasping the goal. First close all the brothels on the streets and then talk.

博客网友:

What is called the non-guilty party? The man finds a mistress, so the wife is the non-guilty party? A wife who is frigid, or unfaithful, or does not take care of the house or the children is also non-guilty? Matters of the household cannot be so easily characterized by the words “non-guilty party”.

xhred:

Keep talking nonsense, because we are already accustomed to it anyway. One look and you can tell this was hatched by someone who stays inside air conditioned buildings all the time [someone who is separate from the real world].  Have this committee member live life without a job or without protection for awhile and see if he can still make such a stupid proposal. Our officials’ thinking is already not the same as our common people’s thinking. The things they care about are these topics that are discussed to while away the time after a cup of tea.

pretty-chinese-girls-mei-nv

Comments from Tianya:

大清蝼蚁:

Opening more brothers can put an end or reduce the phenomenon of a third party. Legalize the sex trade, so people can go whoring without worry.

洛颜雨:

This will make the men happy, [because the women] will all go bother the third party, and the third party can pay the bill.
Hehe,
Or for those who are unable to live together, he can conspire with his wife to find a third party.
If they do that
they can make an amount of money from that third party.
Haha.
What mental retard thought of this?
Originally the third party was still concealed.
Doing this will just make things even more messy.
This is truly asking for even more trouble.
This is so mentally retarded
I cannot help but admire.
For your man to become unfaithful, it means you did not manage your own man properly, and allowed a third party.
Some men occupy several at once, so many women were all deceived.
The women are also victims,
so why make them pay the bill for others??
Emotions is something no one can be blamed for,
it is all about someone willing to give and another willing to receive,
there is nothing right or wrong.

放你自由吧:

Why is someone above speaking up for the third party? Can it be that…
The third party clearly knows the other person has a family yet still inserts herself, yet insists on saying it is emotions. Is destroying other people’s families is moral? Why did you not consider for a moment how the other person’s wife feels, how their children feel? Do you really think that man truly has no emotions whatsoever with his wife? If he did not, how did they get married? If you hurt others you will naturally have to pay the cost, and economic compensation is simple, but is the emotional harm so easy to rectify? When your own husband becomes unfaithful to you, will you be able to still speak so calmly?

09年34岁:

I very much support the third party being liable, but we also cannot let off that person who first becomes unfaithful in a marriage. I will even say that the person who is married should be responsible for the bulk of the damages to be paid.

草根何罪:

This kind of stupid cunt proposal still has someone to propose it? How come our countrymen do not have any romanticism? A man having several pretty young bosom friends is a very normal thing. Those famous writers and thinkers, which of them did not have several?

asian-man-3-women

残阳缺梦:

The government’s congressmen are truly mysterious, just look at the proposals they have made. If they have the courage to make public all of the motions made this time, I bet they can win an Oscar.

大黑屋:

What kind of bastard logic is this? With this logic, those who are raped should bear the the guilt.
Why? Because the rapist is not at fault, and it was only after being enticed by the rape victim that lead to the rape occurring.

纤纤叶儿:

When men cheat, the person who should die is the man.
If you have the means, you should kill him somehow, or taking everything he has is good too.
Why bother with the third party?

哆嗦A蒙:

Japanese law also stipulates that third parties must pay damages, as long as you can prove she knew the man was already married yet still had sexual relations.
Indeed there are cases where the couple works together to cheat a third party of money, but this third party also knew that the man was married yet dared to continue, so those who get cheated deserve it.

其实你可以更美1:

Just who exactly is this representative representing?

Men have done all the virgins, and then point at the women saying: “Why did you girls not refuse?”

Men destroy all the families, and immediately point at their spouse: “Why did you not treat me better?”

Now they want to point at the third party/mistress: Why were you willing to have relations with me!

Men everywhere having second wives/mistresses and not caring for their [first] wives have led to women no longer daring to get married, so now they are pointing at the remaining women: “How can you girls be leftovers, are you not doing everyone an injustice?”

When men desert their long suffering wives to be with new sweethearts lead to women not daring to marry poor and nameless men, they point at the women: “How can you girls be so materialistic?? When we bring up the Confucian “three obedience and four virtues”, women in ancient times would feel guilty so how can you not feel guilty?

Men projecting their own societal position leading to the phenomenon of sons favored over daughters until there is a serious sex-ratio imbalance making it harder to find wives, so they sigh at the women: “Women these days, have all been put on a pedestal, and regarding those leftover women, them not getting married is what use to us? Let’s just humanely eradicate them.”

It is like spitting into the sky, thinking you have profited but actually harming yourself, and then holding a grudge and yelling at the sky!

天呀有我:

I think it is pretty fair, it does not say those penalized will definitely be female third parties, because it can be applied to male third parties too! Are all the people who oppose men?!

花猪蛮蛮:

What kind of society is this? Third party/mistresses cannot be attacked, cannot be yelled at, and now they cannot even be sued for damages under the law. Kao.

What do you think?

Poll

Should we allow people to sue the "third party" for money if the "third party's" extra-marital relationship cause the divorce of a husband and wife?

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42 Comments

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  1. Well, I think this is way to ambiguous to make a law about. Where do you draw the line? What is a “Mistress”? Does sex have to be involved for there to be a case? More often than not, if a man is not happy with his wife, he will seek the company of other women, and he may become attracted to them, but that does not mean he’s going to have sex with them. He may be mentally unfaithful, but that is not something you can prove in a court of law. Not to mention any divorce is all of a sudden grounds for suing people that your significant other is close with. There will be a lot of finger pointing. Furthermore, even if there was a sexual relationship, the is basically the burden of proof. Unless you can get a signed confession from either party saying that, yes we did engage in sexual activity, I fail to see how this would hold up in any court.

  2. Makes no sense. In the typical situation, the wealthy purse carrying businessman/corrupt official/Shanxi coal mine owner cheats on his wife with some floozy saohuo.

    What kind of damages can the now ex-wife expect to sue for? Some juicy pants and a spiffy cell phone? Eye glitter and a Hello Kitty T-shirt? Her S.H.E. daoban CD collection?

  3. The saying “it takes two to tango” applies to this. The 小三 isn’t only half of the problem. In fact, SHE isn’t cheating on anyone… it is the man who is violating his marriage. The 小三 is most likely single so she isn’t breaking a promise to anyone by taking part on the affair and it is entirely possible that the man has not even been clear about his own status with her. She isn’t showing good judgement (in my opinion) but she is a single woman and free to engage in relations with whomever she wishes. The man is the one who has placed his marriage in jeopardy and the one who has violated his marriage oath (something that I think should have a place of more importance in this day and age… it’s your word for crying out loud… why don’t people value the honor of a promise anymore. It says so much about someone who will not treat their word as law). I say put all of the blame on the man.

    His little man led him to the problem so let him be a big man and deal with the consequences

  4. The husband and wife are the two who have made a contract to be faithful and so i support allowing cheating to factor handsomely in divorce proceedings. Having it simply be a factor in the divorce is a good and simple solution. Real life is very messy and not always black and white, so having it be between two people and not the state or a complicated third party seems ideal. Is having a husband trying to cheat but unable to get any a great leap forward for morality? Plus i cant help but feel its sexist in nature, that a woman cheating would be fingered (rightly) with all the responsibility while the man was simply seduced!

    • I want to echo what Celkian said here that the husband and wife have made a contract to be faithful to each other.

      This is my romantic idealist side and while I know reality is EXTREMELY more complicated and messy, I really want to believe that getting married is not so much about your love as it is about your commitment and your word. It is not just about being faithful to your spouse but also being faithful to the promise you made.

      • So what exactly are you saying?

        Don’t ask don’t tell? Don’t let me find out how you truly feel about me, just be good to me no matter how you actually feel

        Or, I know you don’t really care about me but still be good to me regardless of that

      • promise?? relationship is not the contract.love is no longer there, what is the point to keep your promise.
        you must be honest to your love, communicate true feeling is most important thing in your relationship.
        lie to yourself or your partner, in the end both it must hurt both.

  5. If you actually loved you job you wouldn’t slack off on the job or call and pretend you’re sick

    If the 2 people actually loved eachother then no one would want to cheat on the other person in the first place. Take some responsibility. The 3rd person didn’t cause the divorce. A stupid marriage based on the wrong reason caused the divorce

  6. The poll is a great idea. I can’t wait to see the results after a bit more time. Initial impression is that the results here are the exact opposite of the Sina poll :)

  7. I wonder how this would work out in the real world? If both sides have “little thirds” they’d both get sued. And if they’re cheating on their spouses with married people, you could have almost everyone suing everyone else.

    That said, if you’re allowed to sue anyone, you should be allowed to sue the adulterer as well as the one they cheated with. Then again, perhaps that’s covered by divorce laws. Don’t they have to split their goods in half in China when they divorce?

  8. ok. what if the third did not know that he was married???????

  9. SkeletalLock4EvilFreeTibetMyBrothers!!!

    Hmm… to the Chinese poster above… a young guy having multiple sex partners shouldn’t call them mistress it should be his girlfriends.

    If you are 50 year old Bentley riding pimp then you call your girlfriends “mistresses”

    Or something weird like that that smoeone like me would have no clue about :)

  10. @ gene, yeah that’s what I was about to say. Dunno about in China, but in the West often the “little third” doesn’t even know the guy is married. This happened to one of my friends a couple months ago, and she broke it off after she discovered he was married, but they had already been on several dates….enough for her to get sued if the wife ever found out?

    • The typical affair usually revolves around men whom are rich and/or in power, and they tend to pick up young women. Most women know the guy’s married but they do it for material gains, guy buys a house/car/jewllery etc. I guess if the wife sues she could get money back that the husband funnels to their mistress. Then again with a growing middle class people have more financial freedoms and affairs are less inclusive of the rich or a government official.

      • I think that the recovery of assets might be the logic here. If the husband funnels so much money to the mistress that his wife can’t get any money from the divorce, what can she do. By allowing her to recover the money from the mistress, the wife could get her rightful share of the couple’s belongings.

        Of course, the consequences would be the ruin of thousands of mistresses, as the husbands see an opportunity to off-load responsibilities, and go crying back to their wife. Their wife then exercises their anger by suing the mistress, and the husband doesn’t suffer at all.

    • Think “Memoirs of a Geisha.” 小三 or 小姐 are kinda like geishas except not as ritualistic.

  11. I like the pic of the girl holding hands with the dude walking behind her and her bf, that is PRICELESS

  12. As if divorce wasnt messy enough, especially in China when the family and local community have a much bigger influence usually concerning face. I have a friend that divorced 2 years ago and there are still members of the family and friends that dont know.
    But can you imagine having two scorned women dragged into a legal battle trying to exact revenge. ooohhh messy messy messy.

  13. what is the true reason to cause the divorce..
    it’s not because the 3rd person appear, it is the relationship has problem already. if 2 people are in love very much how come the 3rd one can destroy….

  14. Having more laws is not the solution. China needs to import more females. Because of the skewed population imbalance, 118 boys to 110 girls. By 30-50 years later, 30 million men will have no wives.

    So they go fool around all they like, if they don’t get settled and tie the knot. Its going to be a really gay world man.

  15. Yeah let’s turn the world upside down, the guy does not have any responsibilty to care his wife, right ?

    Like in Arabia where a raped girl ends up in prison…

    Guys are innocent kings.

    So if I sleep with a whore she can be held responsible when I end up with HIV ?

    Does China actually wanna go forward or backward in the evolution ???

    • Actually, if she knows she has HIV and engages in unprotected sex, yes, she can be and should be held accountable. If she doesn’t know, then there is no responsibility.

  16. If a woman has her own job and can support herself she doesn’t need to get money from her husband once they’re divorced (the children should get some, though). This whole alimony thing is stupid. Get a job, make your own money, get a new husband who cares for you – your life will be much better without that cheating bastard. Or – if you treated him like shit and made him look for love somewhere else – bite the bullet!

  17. Well,should I give a proposal to the author,ask this question again to REAL Ma Lan,I means, the Master of tear-hold’ wife,you know,Yu Qiuyu’s spouse.

  18. Couldn’t the wife just sue the hubby since he is ultimately the guilty party? Wife and Hubby divorce and Wife takes Bulk of Hubbys assets???

    No need for crummy sue the mistress laws and handled within the existing legal system

  19. Until we can charge wives for messy houses, nagging, becoming a FAT slob, or have some sort of sexual non-performance clause on the books, this stupid proposal is unfair. These are all primary reasons that a man goes elsewhere.

  20. It’s sad it has to even come to this point that this has to be brought up. Just shows how common having an affair is.

  21. What kind of world now…

  22. Women are the cause of all problems…No wonder in most religions, Islam, Buddhism or Confucianism, women are relegated just to take care of her man and kitchen.

    That’ll solve all problems.

  23. FCuk Taiwan ren… (style biter)… i agree.
    Since being here I’ve had to endure the endless sermons on how decadent we are as North Americans/Wetserners etc. How our morals are corrupt, and our society totally contrived, how we’ll sleep with anyone etc…
    Do they think our eyes and ears don’t work? The situations I’ve witnessed and the info that I’ve been privy to since being in this lovely country are shocking to most Chinese… because they don’t think that we know how it all works.
    BUT WE DO.
    And now they are admitting it as well… and now as per usual are trying to make sweeping legal declarations instead of instilling basic concepts from birth onward.

    • I have to say I have seen and heard some shocking things here. I used to live out in the sticks and when a blonde American co-worker arrived, the Chinese boss’s and assistants were completely shameless in their actions. I always wondered if that was because Chinese men [at least the ones in the country] have the impression that western women have loose morals and will sleep with anyone. [Because when I went to high school I can guarantee that’s not the case.]

  24. that is precisely the reason. You have assessed the motives correctly sir.
    Congrats, you are now Sino cert. Level 1

  25. My worst friend and best enemy tried to separate a family I tried to keep together.

    Now she smears the newj woman who distracts what she hopes with some manipulation will be her trophy husband and fantasizes of establishing a family dynasty that slaughters those who smile her potential husband’s way.

    I am working on three books and my MS degree. (WHile running 3 miles daily plus pilates.)

    In a dignified manner I remind her that you lose them the way that you get them. You see…

  26. I heard of a situation where the ex girlfriend intentionally tried to ensare a blayboy richboy by getting pregnant.

    She’s up in arms yelling bloody mary about how she’s going to charge the new gf. But neither have married him.

    It sounds like a soap, but it’s truth more unreal than fiction.

  27. It’s strange that reading all the comments, it seems that only husbands cheat their wifes, ant that the third party should be another woman. Is there any wife who cheats his husband there ?? I know a few of them…

  28. Do it….Do it! I dare the idiots in power to do it. Time for me and others to go husband snatching. Calling all Chinese Gays….Calling all Chinese Gays.
    Let’s take these unhappy men away from their stupid wives.

  29. My husband won’t allow me to cheat. He smashes all his competition.

    I am attracted to artist’s who love life and liberty and humanity.

  30. I flirt with men of science and MAoen who are good at disappearing and reappearing. I also flirt with poor artists and middle class engineers or I.T. god’s.

    He still teases me that I am monagamous.

    I think his laser surgery influenced him greatly…

  31. oh i believe in KARMA… anything that u do to hurt others will comes to yourself…

    whores and gigolos are not deserve about real happiness…

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