Divorce & Social Media . . . in China!

By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Friday, July 24, 2015.

With prosperity comes social problems. The divorce rate in China has risen along with the country’s new wealth. China’s divorce rate climbed by 3.9%, the 12th consecutive annual increase.

Forbes reports on what’s driving the increase. To learn more, they discussed the divorce problem with Liu Lin, a divorce lawyer at Beijing Shuangli Law Firm.

One big factor, he said, is the growing use of social media such as Alibaba-backed Weibo and Tencent’s WeChat. “Social media is a catalyst for divorce,” Liu said.

In the 1980s, divorces were mainly caused by liaisons at settings like dance halls and public squares. Social media is a catalyst for divorce. Through social media, people can get a better understanding of what kind of love they want, but that discovery often happens outside of their marriage.

For example, in the Fengtai District Court in Beijing, the wife had an affair with someone she met on QQ. They lived together and the marriage ended. In another case, a man met a woman through Weibo. He then left his home in Beijing to live with the woman in Hunan.

The one that has an affair usually initiates the divorce, no matter if it’s wife or husband. Normally, assets are split 50-50, with consideration of the wife’s interest as stipulated under relevant law.

Whether one side or the other had an affair isn’t considered in the split of assets. Even though property is split by half, women are disadvantaged in the proceedings.

In China, men’s capacity to earn is much greater than women’s, and they have a lot of private assets that are not known to the wife. Usually, what women win in court is only part a husband’s true assets.

I wrote an article about the impact of social media on divorces in the Florida Bar Commentator. Personal details, they type of evidence we find on social media sites, are important.

Consider the following example:

Husband denies anger management issues but posts on Facebook . . . : “If you have the balls to get in my face, I’ll kick your ass into submission.”

Or this:

Mom denies in court that she smokes marijuana but posts partying, pot-smoking photos of herself on Facebook.

Going through a divorce causes you to be placed under a magnifying glass. If you post things on social media sites that could help your estranged spouse’s case, an attorney will likely make use of that as evidence.

The Forbes article is available here.