Photo:VCG

A court in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality recently granted the city's first restraining order to a man after he was wounded twice by his wife with a knife during domestic violence incidents. 

The 28-year-old man, surnamed Zhao, was cut on the head and shoulder by his wife, surnamed Gao, with a knife last November and this February in domestic disputes, according to media reports. 

Zhao could no longer tolerate his wife's repeated domestic violence and filed for a restraining order to the Chongqing Municipality Liangping District People's Court on February 9, requiring Gao to stop beating and verbally abusing him. 

The judge overseeing the case reviewed the application and evidence materials, including hospital diagnostic certificates and police reports submitted by Zhao, and granted the restraining order. 

The couple are currently separated and Zhao has filed for divorce. 

Statistics released by the All-China Women's Federation and the National Bureau of Statistics in 2018 show that 19.9 percent of men and 22.9 percent of women have suffered varying levels of domestic violence, which means that nearly half of the victims of domestic violence in China are males. 

Chinese people tend to see a husband beating a wife as domestic violence while a wife beating the husband is often regarded as resistance from the weaker side, which legal experts pointed out is a misunderstanding of domestic violence, according to the news platform thecover.cn. 

China's first Anti-Domestic Violence Law enacted on March 1, 2016 stipulates that domestic violence refers to physical and mental violations between family members in the forms of beating, binding, injuring, restriction of personal freedom, frequent verbal abuse and intimidation, which means a wife beating her husband also constitutes domestic violence. 

"Whether it is men or women, people should use legal tools to protect themselves when their personal safety is violated," Li Yong, an associate professor from Southwest University of Political Science and Law, told the news platform thecover.cn. 

Since the enactment of the law, many parts of the country have granted restraining orders to male victims. Municipalities and provinces such as Beijing and Northeast China's Jilin Province granted their first restraining orders to men in December 2016 and November 2019 respectively. 

Global Times