Guangdong court orders joint custody in foreign-related divorce case

Instead of giving the custody of a child solely to either the mother or father in a foreign-related divorce case, a court in Guangdong province has recently ruled that both could share the right.

The Shenzhen Family Trial Center Involving Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan and Foreign Factors, a division of the Longhua District People's Court, said the case was eventually solved through mediation after the two litigants agreed to share the custody of their son.

"The result is also conducive to the settlement of transnational domestic disputes," the court added.

Eight years ago, a Chinese woman married a Malaysian national Alvin and soon they had a boy. In order to live a better life, Alvin moved to several areas to seek job opportunities, including Saipan, Malaysia, and Macao, while the woman stayed in Shenzhen to work and take care of the child. Sometimes, she took the boy to visit Alvin, according to a statement provided by the court.

After living separately for a long time and finding that the man was living with another woman, the Chinese woman applied to the center for divorce, requesting judges to give her the custody of the boy and asked the Malaysian man to pay child support, the statement said.

However, Alvin disagreed with the request, saying that the woman was busy with work and he could bring the boy to Macao to offer him a better life and study environment, it added.

"Considering the argument between the two would not only aggravate their conflict, but also affect the visitation of the child after their divorce, we invited mediators and social workers focusing on domestic affairs to jointly deal with the case," the court said.

"More importantly, a long-term contradiction between the parents is not good to the physical and mental health of the child," it emphasized.

Therefore, after fully learning about the working and living environment of both litigants, the court ruled that the pair share the custody of the child, taking turns to take care of the boy and paying child support during the period.

The court asked Alvin to raise the boy when he studies in Macao and clarified that the Chinese woman has the right to look after the son during his summer and winter holidays.

Meanwhile, the court also suggested that the litigants pay closer attention to the boy's physical and mental health, and asked them to allow the other to visit the child after the divorce.

Established in July 2022, the center of the court is responsible for handling first-instance cross-border family disputes, such as those related to divorce, child custody, inheritance and property allocation.

Data released by the court in July last year showed that the center had filed 640 such cases since its establishment, covering 38 countries and regions.