China's draft version of the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests Photo: IC

Local government in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu Province, has introduced a policy to reward individuals who report or intervene in cases of domestic violence, with a commendation for their courageous actions. The amount of the reward ranges from 500 to 1000 yuan ($69 to 138), local media cited the government's statement on Wednesday.

Those who discover and report instances of actual or suspected domestic violence, intervene in a timely manner to prevent illegal activities, and assist law enforcement agencies in solving related cases will be eligible for the reward, said the statement.

While those who are legally obligated to report such incidents and the victims themselves, as well as their immediate family members, are not included within the scope of the reward.

This is not the first time that a city in China has included reporting cases of domestic violence in the scope of rewards. Prior to Wuxi, similar policies were implemented in Changzhou and Taizhou in 2021, aiming to encourage the entire society to report instances of domestic violence and violations of the rights of minors.

Wuxi's newly-released policyhad attracted more than 1.6 million views as of press time on China'ssocial media platform Sina Weibo, with many netizens said such policy should be extended to the whole country.

In fact, China's judicial authorities have also stepped up protection of the rights and interests of women and children, dealing with domestic violence with stronger measures and taking a zero-tolerance stance for crimes against minors.

Over the past five years, nearly 9 million marriage- and family-related cases were concluded, and 13,000 personal protection orders were issued. Since 2021, 3,152 suspects have been prosecuted on charges of trafficking women and children, up 16 percent from the previous two years, the top procuratorate said.

In terms of minor protection, 290,000 suspects were prosecuted in the past five years for crimes against minors including sexual assault, maltreatment and violence. According to China's Anti-domestic Violence Law, an individual can seek a protection order from the court after suffering from or facing the threat of domestic violence.

Global Times