China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs has unveiled proposals to simplify procedures for couples seeking to get married, sparking heated discussion on social media.

The revised draft regulations on marriage registration, released on Monday, would reduce red tape in a number of areas, such as the number of identity documents couples need to provide and geographical restrictions on where marriages can be registered.

The rule changes appear to be designed to make it easier for young people to get married, as Chinese authorities seek to boost the country’s falling marriage rate.

China only registered 3.43 million new marriages in the first half of the year, the lowest total recorded in a decade and a decline of nearly 500,000 compared with the same period in 2023, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs confirmed earlier this month.

To get married under the new regulations, Chinese citizens would only need to present a photo ID and a signed statement confirming they are unmarried and have no close blood ties to their partner.

Crucially, people would no longer be required to present their household registration, or hukou, certificate.

Many on Chinese social media had previously criticized the need for couples to provide their hukou documents, as in theory it allows parents to prevent their children from getting married.

Hukou certificates cover an entire household rather than an individual, and the documents are typically kept by the heads of each family. As a result, parents who are opposed to their child’s wedding could simply refuse to hand over the certificate — effectively making it impossible for the child to marry.

The new rules also appear to remove any requirement for couples to register their marriage in the place where they have permanent hukou status, which could potentially make it possible for citizens to tie the knot anywhere they wish in China.

Chinese authorities have been pushing to remove such geographical restrictions since 2021, with 21 provincial-level authorities — including Beijing, Tianjin, and Inner Mongolia — already piloting “inter-provincial marriage registration” programs.

The draft regulations have attracted huge attention on social media, with a related hashtag on the microblogging platform Weibo amassing over 380 million views.

While some hailed the reforms as a step forward for couples, others expressed concerns that parents’ opinions were being ignored and that the changes would lead to a rise in impulsive marriages.

“(Adult) children may secretly get married and register their marriage without their parents’ knowledge,” wrote one blogger with over 2.5 million followers in a Weibo post. “In the past, many parents kept the hukou booklet shut away to prevent their children from impulsively getting married. Now, it’s not so easily guarded against.”

Many netizens also argued that the authorities should introduce similar measures to streamline the divorce process. In 2021, China implemented a new civil code that introduced a new mandatory 30-day cooling-off period for couples seeking to dissolve their marriages.

The newly issued draft regulations reaffirm the need for divorcing couples to complete a cooling-off period, and clarify that either party may withdraw their divorce application at any point during those 30 days. But many have called for the policy to be scrapped.

“Advocating for marriage freedom is appropriate, but at the same time, the freedom to divorce should also be unrestricted,” read one highly upvoted post on Weibo.

Ye Mingyi, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics specializing in family law, told Sixth Tone that the new proposals are part of a wider government drive to digitize its services and make administrative processes more convenient.

“Identity cards have now gone digital, with nationwide connectivity, timely updates, and comprehensive information,” Ye said. “But the household register is still stuck in its paper form and is failing to keep pace with the needs of the digital age.”

(Header image: VCG)