The heavily disputed amendments to the Marriage Law were approved by China's legislature yesterday. After three deliberations, the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), almost unanimously adopted the amendments, Xinhua reported. Major changes adopted included outlawing baoernai - or having a de-facto second wife. The new law states it is 'against bigamy, against a married person cohabiting with somebody else'. Under the law, women who divorce because of the 'second wife' or domestic abuse can seek financial compensation. Other changes include defining the foundation of marriage: couples should be 'loyal and helpful to each other'; and the property ownership principle: 'the couple jointly own the property accumulated during marriage except personal items.' New amendments are aimed at bringing the 'second wife' problem within the scope of the law. One of the deliberations by the Standing Committee of the NPC was about being more explicit than previous clauses in the Marriage Law. The law now talk about 'against bigamy, against a married person cohabiting with somebody else . . . against behaviour that is not conducive to monogamy'. 'The new change further clarifies the legal responsibility of bigamy and baoernai - having a concubine,' Xinhua quoted Gu Angran, deputy secretary of the Standing Committee's Legal Committee, as saying. However, Wu Changzhen, professor of marriage law and one of the chief consultants to the amendment, said that one of the most important mandates of the amendment would be to lay a conceptual structure for the marriage law, rather than fighting against extramarital affairs. It was not as simple as outlawing baoernai, which was what many people thought, she said. The Amendment of Marriage Law, a law second only in importance to the Constitution according to Professor Wu, attracted a great deal of public attention. At the start of the year, the legislature publicised the draft amendments to solicit opinions from the public. As many as 3,000 letters were said to have been received in response. The Marriage Law was considered to need a major face-lift as the 20-year-old law could not cope with domestic violence and the baoernai syndrome, which has become rampant in China over the past decade. Statistics show that 65 per cent of divorces result from extramarital affairs. There is concern that the affairs cause serious harm to the family unit and social stability. More worrying is the increasing number of 'second wives' and mistresses among corrupt Communist Party cadres.