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Zhuang Pinghui

A proposal to lower China’s age limit for minors deemed in law to have “capability for civil conduct” to six years old has met with strong opposition by lawmakers, with some saying that it is too low and risky, mainland media report.
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Members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, are deliberating a draft set of basic principles of the Civil Code, the collection of laws that are fundamental to personal rights.
One article proposes defining minors, between the ages of six and 18, as having limited legal capacity.
The minimum age for attending primary school is six years old and children do not have any opportunity to be in touch with society, or gain any social knowledge before that
NPC deputy Su Zelin, vice president of the Supreme People’s Court
The existing law set the age limit from 10 to 18, the Legal Daily reported.
The NPC deputy Liang Huixing, a renowned civil jurists, said that quite often a six-year-old child shopped online, so a merchants’ rights would be harmed if such children were considered to have no civil legal capability and their purchases were deemed invalid.
However, deputy Su Zelin, vice president of the Supreme People’s Court, said “recklessly” lowering the age limit to six would be inappropriate and be disadvantageous to protecting children, the newspaper reported.
The reason for setting an age limit on civil capability was to ensure fair and safe transactions and maintain good, orderly transactions, as well as better protecting the legal interests of minors, Su said.
But a dramatic lowering of the age limit would pose a “major system risk”, Su was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
“The minimum age for attending primary school is six years old and children do not have any opportunity to be in touch with society, or gain any social knowledge before that,” Su said.
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“They don’t have the experience or culture and knowledge to be able to have civil legal responsibility.”
Su proposed either lowering the age limit to eight, which would be when they had gained a certain level of social experience and knowledge, or keeping it at the current level of 10.
A child of 10 would have completed his or her junior years of primary education and would have more opportunities to be in touch with the ways of society and better understand their own behaviour and its consequences.
Su’s proposal was supported by Shandong deputy Sun Jing, who said that a six-year-old’s cognitive capability and judgment varied depending on things such as a child’s education or where the child had grown up.
A very low age limit for civil capability would prove very unfavourable for protecting minors, and leave loopholes for fraud, Sun said.
Li Lianning, a deputy director of the NPC law committee, said it was important to be very “careful” before changing the age limit because “it might be associated with criminal legal capability later”.
“I think we need to assess whether it is favourable or not for the protection of minors, or how much more favourable it is,” Li was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
“We can’t lower the age limit simply because children nowadays are smarter and have broader views.”


Strong opposition to plan to lower China’s age limit to six years old for minors deemed capable of civil conduct

children wearing gowns of Doctor Degree run at the Hedong District No. 2 Kindergarten in Tianjin, north China, June 17, 2016. Some older children finished kindergarten education here. (Xinhua/Liu Dongyue) (lfj)

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