From January 1 China introduced the Family Education Promotion Law to teach parents how to be responsible guardians, as part of its efforts to improve the protection of children. Until this legislation, parenting had been a private family matter and not bound by any national law.

The new law has six elaborate chapters and 55 articles that will serve as guidelines on how to raise children and abide by specific instructions in terms of family responsibility, social collaboration and related legal strictures. According to The Times, London, the guidelines include instructions for parents on how to feed them well, help them get enough sleep and also ensure the children learn to love the Communist Party of China. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/eat-sleep-love-xi-chinas-new-rules-for-parenting

The law intended to “guide the whole society to put an emphasis on family and family education to enhance family happiness and societal harmony, to cultivate well-rounded builders and inheritors of socialism”, was implemented after President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of family education.

The country already has a Compulsory Education Law that requires children to get at least nine years of education, and another Law on the Protection of Minors supposed to protect mental and physical health of the nation’s children. But this new law specifically targets parents to remind them of their individual responsibilities in carrying out family education.

One of the key purposes of the law is to protect millions of “left-behind children” in rural China, whose parents have to leave them with grandparents, extended family members or other caregivers when they migrate to big cities for better jobs and higher salaries. These children often get estranged from parents and become victims of neglect and abuse. These kids can’t handle the burden of homework and pressure from after-school tutoring. The new law is meant to address these problems.

The law also seeks parents to teach their children “love the [Communist] party, nation, people, and socialism," and "to respect the elderly and care for the young," and "to be thrifty and frugal."

READ MORE: https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3162588/china-parenting-law-first-case-under-new
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1243992.shtml