Post-pandemic policy imperatives to stem violence against women in China

Violence against women is rampant in China. Even though meaningful strides have been made in the country, it remains disturbingly common for men to assault women—verbally or physically, who may or may not be their partners—in broad daylight in China. To make the situation worse, COVID-19, along with its restrictions, has both undermined women's ability to escape from abuse or violence and society's ability to provide timely help to victims. In light of the rising violence against women post-COVID, in this paper, we discuss the policy imperatives for countries like China to establish effective guardrails and support systems to protect women from the dehumanizing and destabilizing crime that is violence against women—a social malaise that not only harms and undermines the safety of society's daughters, mothers, and grandmothers, but also the integrity of local communities and social contract, let along shared humanity and global solidarity at large.