NO MORE:Stop domestic violence campaigns now accepted in China (XINHUA)

No outside help

But some experts do not agree with Wang. To them, external intervention is important, but in China, it won't solve the problem.

"External intervention is definitely insufficient in deterring violence; this is one of the major reasons why so many people are reluctant to stand up and speak out," said Xia Yinlan, Director of Institute of Marriage and Family Law Studies of China Law Society in an interview with CCTV.

Traditionally, Chinese people are reluctant to interfere into the domestic affairs of other families.

"After all, they are husband and wife and we cannot intervene too much into their domestic affairs when conflicts occurred," said Guo Lingling, an official from a sub-district office in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province in an interview with people.com.cn. "All we can do is to reconcile them."

Even the police hold similar views. "We seldom take forceful measures in domestic dispute cases so long as the circumstances are not very serious," said a policeman in Zhengzhou who only gave his surname Hai. "You know, they may quarrel in day time and get reconciled at night."

This outlook has caused serious results. According to a report in Beijing-based Fazhi Evening News in August last year, Dong Shanshan, a 26-year-old Beijing woman, was beaten to death by her husband Wang Guangyu. However, during the more than four months before her death, she called the police for help eight times. But each time, the police just came and mediated and then left without punishing her husband. After her death, her husband was put behind the bars.

Psychological help needed

In fact, domestic violence never simply harms only one party, but all the family members. "In a family full of violence, quarrels and resentments, children will be the first to be harmed mentally," said Xu Luqin, a senior physician at the Third People's Hospital of Jiangmen of Guangdong Province in an interview with people.com.cn.

Xu added that a boy who grows up in a family with frequent domestic violence is very likely to become a perpetrator when he gets married if he does not get psychological help early on.

That's why domestic violence has nothing to do with the education background of family members. Actually, many of the perpetrators of domestic violence are well educated individuals.

Data from MWPCC show that 64 percent of the husbands who often beat their wives are university graduates or higher. Owing to work pressure, Xu said they vent frustration out at home.

According to Wang Xingjuan, nearly all the perpetrators of domestic violence have psychological problems and need professional treatment. After Li Yang's case was disclosed, he went to Wang's center for treatment.

"But most Chinese people do not regard psychological problems as disease and are reluctant to commit to treatment," said Wang. Compared to those in other countries, Chinese people seldom go to psychological counseling centers.

A special law needed

"People committing domestic violence have a psychological disease, but as a case, it falls into the category of law violation and even crime, which involves people's physical rights, social ethics and morality and protection of women and children's rights," Li Xuyan, Deputy Director of Henan Provincial Bar Association, told Henan Legal Daily.

According to him, husband and wife should have equal rights. When one party injures the other party physically or mentally, it is definitely against the fundamental legal spirit. "The problem is, we currently don't have a particular law targeting domestic violence in China. That's why the police can do nothing but mediate in domestic violence cases."

The All-China Women's Federation has on several occasions suggested to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, to legislate a special anti-domestic violence law.

On September 21, the All-China Women's Federation announced that the Commission of Legislative Affairs of the National People's Congress had put the anti-domestic violence law on its agenda.

"Don't try to cover up what you have suffered from your husband and have a zero tolerance toward domestic violence," said Kim Lee in an interview with CCTV. "That is what I want to say to the women who suffer from domestic violence but still keep silent."