After Decades Of Restrictions On Families, Chinese Are Free!

These restrictions opened the way to an entire system of corruption and bribes. For instance, a girl who wished to get married was subject to sexual blackmailing, or a divorce authorization could cost two or three months’ salary.

Until very recently, the police had the right to break into houses, just to check what was going on inside. Early this year, the police arrested a couple on the grounds that they were watching an erotic movie in their home. But when the couple filed a suit, they obtained an apology and indemnities. They were even given back their video tape, and brought the authorities to enact a law according to which the authorities could no longer interfere in what citizens did in their houses.

But these new measures don’t mean that for Chinese citizens, the times are better; political rights are still taboo, and like China’s great wall, any attempt to make a breach is adamantly foiled.