In China\'s Most-Watched Divorce Case, 3 Victories, 1 Defeat

BEIJING â€" For over a year, Chinese society has been riveted by the case of Kim Lee, an American woman who did something extremely unusual: go public with accusations of domestic violence against her wealthy and famous husband, Li Yang.

On Sunday, in a major victory for feminists and the rule of law, a Beijing court granted Ms. Lee a divorce on grounds of abuse and made history by issuing a three-month protection order against her ex-husband - a first in the nation’s capital, Beijing, according to lawyers and the Chinese media.

“It’s a very important case. All of society was paying attention,” Guo Jianmei, a leading rights lawyer, said in a phone interview. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

The high-profile case was played out on microblogs and through the media. A multimillionaire, Mr. Li argued on televiion that domestic violence was acceptable in China, angering ordinary people. The father of the couple’s three daughters, he is the founder of “Crazy English,” a way of learning the language that involves shouting loudly to overcome inhibitions. Ms. Lee, a former public school teacher in the United States, worked closely with Mr. Li in his business. She said he threatened her, and failed to appear in court for the verdict.

Ms. Guo listed what she said were the case’s three victories - and one defeat.

“Firstly, the court granted a protection order. Secondly, it acknowledged domestic violence as the grounds of divorce,” something still too rare, she said.

“Thirdly, it ordered Li Yang to pay 50,000 renminbi in compensation for the violence, which although it’s a small amount is important in saying ‘it’s not acceptable,’” she said.

Yet Ms. Guo said that the financial term! s of the settlement - Ms. Lee will receive 12 million renminbi ($1.9 million) and a fixed sum annually until her daughters reach 18 - showed that Chinese courts failed to uncover Mr. Li’s true assets and make him pay commensurately.

“He hid almost all his money from the court,” said Ms. Guo. “And the court didn’t force him to reveal it. So in reality the settlement was very unjust.”

At the bottom lies the failure of the state to protect the weaker and poorer against the stronger and richer, she said.

“It’s a huge flaw in the system,” she said. “The state doesn’t intervene to force rich men like Mr. Li to reveal their true assets, and it doesn’t allow lawyers like us to do it either, it doesn’t give us the rights. This is a society that doesn’t control those with money or power. It doesn’t see things through to the end.”

But Ms. Lee is relieved. In an interview, she explained what drove her through painful days and months, as she documented the abuse an threats with reluctant police officers, when some men on the streets cursed her (though many people encouraged her), when the court seemed to delay, and people in positions of authority told her to give up, as many Chinese women do.

“In the beginning, I did it for my daughters. I wanted to show them I was strong,” the 41-year-old woman said.

But after her situation became public in 2011, the letters and emails started arriving, from abused women and their children, describing their fear and suffering. By last Friday, two days before the divorce, she had received 1,141 such messages from strangers, she said.

“It quickly became a matter of the other women and their stories,” she said. “No one else was speaking out. I just felt I had to.”

“I hope people will use me as an example of success,” she said. “Now I can say, ‘use your rights, these are the laws and it’s painful and they could be better but you can succeed.”

The difficulty in getting help co! ntinues t! o drive many abused women to desperate measures, she said.

“You can pick up the law or you can pick up a fruit knife. But it’s still easier for people to pick up a knife than the law, and that’s what’s happening,” she said, pointing to the case of Li Yan, a woman in Sichuan province sentenced to death for murdering her abusive husband in 2010, a sentence feminists are frantically fighting to stop. “She’s an example of someone who tried to pick up the law and she failed,” said Ms. Lee.

“When I went to the police once they said, ‘this isn’t America,’” she said. “But I didn’t use anything but Chinese law. I stayed on this long road. That’s why I think it’s really hopeful.”