分类： society

After more than two decades of stalled negotiations and persistent grassroots advocacy, Indonesia’s parliament has finally enacted a groundbreaking law that formally recognizes and protects the rights of the nation’s 4.2 million domestic workers, a workforce overwhelmingly made up of women.

For years, this critical segment of the Indonesian labor force existed in a legal gray area: prior to this new legislation, domestic workers were not officially classified as workers under national labor regulations, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and poverty with no formal recourse. An estimated 90% of all domestic workers in Indonesia are women, many of whom have long faced systemic marginalization in informal work arrangements that lack basic social protections.

The Domestic Workers Protection Law, which was first introduced to legislative chambers back in 2004, delivers sweeping new guarantees for domestic workers across the country. Under the new framework, workers will be legally entitled to paid rest days, public health insurance coverage, and formal pension benefits. The legislation also bars recruitment and placement agencies from withholding any portion of workers’ wages as placement fees, and imposes an outright ban on child domestic labor, making it illegal to hire any person under the age of 18 for full-time domestic work.

Emotional reactions greeted the final passage of the bill, with many long-time advocates and domestic workers describing the moment as the fruition of a decades-long fight for dignity. “It feels like a dream,” Ajeng Astuti, a domestic worker, told BBC Indonesian. “This is our 22-year struggle as marginalized women to gain protection.” Jumiyem, a domestic worker based in Yogyakarta, echoed that sentiment, saying “We’ve been longing for this [law], and now we can feel it.”

The legislation faced repeated setbacks over its 22-year journey to passage: after its initial introduction in 2004, the bill hit one legislative roadblock after another, with parliamentary discussions put on hold for more than a decade before being revived for debate in 2020. Now that the bill has been signed into law, national regulators have one year to develop detailed implementing regulations that will lay out how the new protections will be enforced across the country.

Before the new law, even as domestic workers played an unseen but foundational role in Indonesian households and the broader national economy, millions remained completely outside the protection of existing labor laws. Most worked in informal arrangements with no written employment contract, many logging 12-hour or longer workdays for substandard wages, and reports have documented children as young as 12 being pushed into full-time domestic work.

While human and labor rights organizations have widely praised the law as a historic step forward for worker protections, they caution that the work to secure dignity for domestic workers is far from finished. Lita Anggraini, a representative of Jala PRT, one of Indonesia’s leading domestic worker advocacy groups, told AFP that widespread public education campaigns will be critical to inform employers of their new legal obligations under the law.

Advocacy groups point to ongoing systemic abuse that the new law must address: between 2021 and 2024, Jala PRT documented more than 3,300 reported cases of violence against domestic workers, including instances of severe physical assault and ongoing psychological abuse. The new legal framework marks the first major national effort to curb these abuses and bring millions of marginalized workers under the protection of the law.

In a proactive step to strengthen child protection and build understanding of China’s legal system among young foreign residents, Beijing’s procuratorial organs have launched a targeted, interactive legal education program for international minor students. The pilot event, held Monday at the New Start Center operated by the Xicheng District People’s Procuratorate, brought together 18 international students from the International Department of Beijing Yu Cai School, who traveled from diverse home countries including Egypt, Thailand, Mongolia, Indonesia and Kazakhstan to experience legal education first-hand.

Designed specifically to educate youth on China’s laws and protections for minors, the New Start Center crafted a tailored agenda for this first-of-its-kind visit for international students. During the day’s activities, the participating students got a clear breakdown of the core responsibilities of Chinese public prosecutors, alongside practical guidance on personal safety for young people living and studying in China. In an open interactive session with Zhao Ying, a veteran prosecutor specializing in juvenile justice cases, students explored key provisions of Chinese law, ranging from the legal age of criminal responsibility to the country’s frameworks for addressing pervasive youth issues such as school bullying, child abuse and domestic violence.

Beyond classroom-style discussion, the event included hands-on experience with the center’s innovative welfare resources. Students had the opportunity to test the center’s psychological testing system, which uses biometric sensor technology attached to the ear to analyze breathing patterns and real-time physiological data, generating a visual readout of the user’s current emotional state, from relaxation to acute stress.

For many participants, the visit marked a transformative first insight into China’s legal system. Marwan Mazen, a 17-year-old Egyptian student who has studied in Beijing for several years, shared his enthusiasm after the event. “This activity was really meaningful for me. I learned about how China addresses bullying and got to understand the basics of Chinese law, and I realized just how closely legal education ties to our daily lives,” he said. “It protects us as students, helping us understand both our rights and our responsibilities. This is my first time having an experience like this at such an incredible facility, and it makes me feel really safe studying here knowing there is a strong legal system that protects everyone.”

Shou Yan, a teacher at Beijing Yu Cai School and a deputy to the Beijing People’s Congress, Beijing’s top legislative body, emphasized that inclusive legal education is a non-negotiable resource for all students studying in China, regardless of nationality. “Both Chinese and international students need to understand and abide by the laws of the country they live in,” she noted. She added that the program demonstrates the openness of China’s legal system and plays a critical role in supporting the safety and well-being of international students residing in Beijing, calling for similar initiatives to become a regular, integrated part of international school curricula.

Zhao Ying, the juvenile prosecutor leading the event, framed the visit as a meaningful innovation in public legal education for prosecutors. “By inviting international minor students to our youth center, we can give them a clear, tangible understanding of Chinese law, which helps them avoid accidental violations of the law and empowers them to leverage legal protections for their own safety,” she explained. “This initiative also highlights the strong collaborative partnership between educational institutions and legal authorities, and it gives foreign students a first-hand look at the fairness and compassion that are core to China’s juvenile justice system.”

A local court in Shanghai announced Tuesday that a woman has received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve for the fatal abuse and intentional injury of her boyfriend’s three-year-old son. The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court found defendant Zhao Yudie guilty on two counts of abuse and intentional injury, additionally ordering that Zhao’s political rights be stripped for life.

Court documents detail that the abuse began shortly after Zhao moved in with her boyfriend surnamed Huang and his young son in July 2024. Using the toddler’s occasional mischief as a flawed justification, Zhao subjected the child to repeated physical abuse over the course of weeks, including beatings to the boy’s back, buttocks and legs, as well as biting attacks on his limbs.

The fatal incident unfolded on the evening of August 24, 2024, at a park in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area. Irritated by the child running around the park grounds, Zhao launched a brutal attack: she slapped the boy’s head and face repeatedly, beat him with a tree branch, and kicked his body multiple times. In the course of the attack, Zhao threw the toddler down a riverbank slope, causing him to fall and suffer a severe blunt force head injury on the ground.

After returning home later that evening, the young boy lost consciousness. Zhao eventually brought him to a local hospital for emergency care, but medical teams were unable to reverse the damage. The victim passed away on September 4, 2024, from central nervous system failure triggered by the blunt force brain trauma he sustained in the attack. Post-mortem examinations also confirmed widespread injuries across the child’s body: multiple bruises covered his back, face and chest, with distinct bite marks found on his left calf.

In its official ruling, the court clarified that while Zhao’s actions showed clear intent to cause bodily harm, there was no premeditation to kill the child. The court also moved to debunk widespread unsubstantiated rumors that circulated online following the boy’s death, including false claims that Zhao had stabbed the child with toothpicks, that he had been forced to scavenge for food due to starvation, and that only small stones were found in his stomach during the autopsy. The court confirmed all of these viral claims are completely unfounded.

Officials also emphasized that no evidence has emerged to indicate that the boy’s father, Huang, participated in, concealed, or tolerated Zhao’s abuse of his son, ending widespread online speculation about his potential involvement.

In the vast, culturally rich landscapes of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, 26-year-old local tour guide Dilinur Tursunjan has built far more than just professional relationships with her visitors — she has cultivated a deep, lasting emotional connection with a Taiwanese tourist family that transcends the narrow Taiwan Strait separating the two sides.

Dilinur’s story catapulted her to national social media fame earlier this year, after a TikTok (Douyin) video of her talking about the groundbreaking Tianshan Shengli Tunnel went viral, racking up millions of views from viewers across China. The footage was captured by tourist Lin, who traveled with Dilinur on two separate trips: a tour of northern Xinjiang in October 2025, followed by a journey through southern Xinjiang this past March.

In the heartfelt viral clip, Dilinur spoke from the heart about the engineering marvel that is the Tianshan Shengli Tunnel. “Because the people needed this accessible highway, our motherland could move mountains and redirect rivers,” she said. “It’s not that cutting through the Tianshan Mountains was ever easy — but on the other side of these peaks, there are people waiting for better lives.”

Stretching across 2,500 kilometers, the Tianshan Mountains have historically separated northern and southern Xinjiang, creating long, dangerous travel routes between the two regions. The newly opened 22.13-kilometer Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, the longest expressway tunnel in the world, opened to traffic in December 2025. The mega project has cut a treacherous three-hour mountain crossing down to a smooth 20-minute drive, transforming regional connectivity and daily life for local residents.

Work on the tunnel pushed the limits of engineering: construction teams lived and worked at altitudes above 4,000 meters, facing constant threats of oxygen deprivation, rock bursts, and sudden water inrushes. Even against these extreme challenges, Chinese engineering teams deployed cutting-edge innovative technologies to complete the full drilling process in just 52 months, finishing the project years ahead of early projections.

For Dilinur, the tunnel’s story is not just a matter of national engineering pride — it is personal. Born and raised in Artux, she moved 1,500 kilometers to Urumqi to attend Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics. What once took an exhausting 18-hour drive by road now takes roughly 13 hours, a change that has made returning home to see her family far easier.

“Now I can get home much faster, and tourists spend less time traveling on the road and more time enjoying all the beautiful attractions Xinjiang has to offer,” she explained. “That’s why I’m so deeply proud of this project — I’ve seen what it changed for people like me.”

Lin, the Taiwanese tourist who filmed the viral video, first found Dilinur through the Douyin social media platform before booking their first trip. She said she was particularly moved when she realized the tunnel was built to lift up local communities, not just to claim a global engineering record. Over their two trips together, the group explored some of Xinjiang’s most iconic landmarks, from the stunning blue waters of Sayram Lake to the rugged heights of the Pamir Plateau and the centuries-old Kashgar Ancient City.

The bond between Dilinur and Lin’s family deepened dramatically when Dilinur invited the group to her home for a traditional Uyghur meal featuring hand-pulled noodles, slow-cooked mutton, and homemade fig jam. The warm gathering stretched late into the night, leaving a lasting impression on the Taiwanese visitors.

“It felt just like being with my own family at home,” Lin shared in a video of the gathering. “I’d only ever seen moments this warm and genuine on television before — I never got to experience it myself.”

Today, the connection between the two sides is so strong that Dilinur has already invited the family to her future wedding, and Lin has already said she is eager to attend and even wear traditional Uyghur clothing for the celebration. Before the family departed on their second trip, the group even extended their stay to celebrate the Roza Festival (Eid al-Fitr) together at Urumqi’s bustling Grand Bazaar.

Now boasting more than 500,000 followers on Douyin, Dilinur uses her growing platform to showcase the real, living culture and beauty of her home region to people across China and around the world. “I hope more people get to know the real Xinjiang, which is very different from the false narratives Western media often spreads,” she said.

As Lin’s family prepared to leave Xinjiang, they already made plans for a third visit — sharing their hope that one day soon, they will be able to fly directly from Taipei to Urumqi, rather than transferring through Hong Kong as they must do today. For her part, Dilinur says her next big dream is to visit Taiwan in person, to taste the island’s fresh seafood and see its iconic mountain landscapes for herself.

NANCHANG — A sweeping surge in digital reading has unlocked new access to literary content across China, pushing more citizens to build consistent reading habits as national efforts to cultivate a book-loving society drive steady growth in overall reading engagement.

New data released Monday during the fifth National Conference on Reading reveals that China’s overall adult reading rate climbed to 82.3 percent in 2025, with the average number of books consumed per capita across both print and digital formats rising to 8.39. The findings, pulled from a national reading survey and the 2025 China Digital Reading Report, confirm that digital formats have become a core driver expanding the country’s total reading population.

The annual conference, hosted this year in Nanchang, the capital of East China’s Jiangxi province, opened alongside the inaugural launch of China’s first official National Reading Week, which will run through this coming Sunday. The week-long celebration is a key part of broader national initiatives designed to embed a strong reading culture in communities across the country.

According to the national survey, 80.8 percent of Chinese adults now regularly interact with digital reading content, spanning e-books, serialized online literature, audiobooks, and short-form video book summaries. Researchers behind the data note that the flexibility of digital formats has been instrumental in growing participation: commuters can listen to audiobooks during daily travel, and mobile readers can access serialized fiction at any time, removing long-standing barriers to consistent reading.

By the end of 2025, China’s total digital reading user base hit 689 million, marking a 2.95 percent year-over-year increase, while the total number of available digital reading works surpassed 70 million. Over the past five years alone, the overall market size of China’s digital reading industry has nearly doubled, expanding from 30.25 billion yuan (approximately 4.4 billion U.S. dollars) to 59.48 billion yuan, a clear indicator of robust growth on both the supply and demand sides of the market.

Industry leaders attribute much of this market expansion to the evolution of online literature from a niche digital product into a pillar of the broader cultural economy. “The essence of reading is to allow stories to break through boundaries and enter everyday life,” explained Xie Lanfang, vice-president of Yuewen Group, China’s leading digital publishing platform. She added that digital reading content is increasingly expanding beyond online platforms to integrate with offline cultural consumption and interactive consumer experiences, creating new touchpoints for reader engagement.

Chinese authorities have long prioritized reading as a core driver of national intellectual and ethical development, as well as a catalyst for broader innovation and creativity, spurring ongoing, coordinated efforts to build a nationwide book-loving society. To strengthen institutional support for these goals, a formal regulation on promoting nationwide reading entered into force this past February. The new policy outlines concrete measures to expand public reading facilities, improve public reading services, and strengthen long-term supporting mechanisms for reading promotion.

Under the new regulation, the fourth week of April is officially designated as National Reading Week, marking 2026 as the first year the initiative has been observed nationwide. Over the course of the week, thousands of reading-focused events will be held across every region of China, including author lectures, book fairs, reading salons, and public book donation drives, all targeted at encouraging greater public participation in reading.

“Reading service facilities have improved, and public awareness and satisfaction are relatively high,” noted Feng Shixin, president of the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication. He added that continued work is still needed to further improve accessibility for marginalized groups and upgrade the quality of public reading services nationwide.

Even as digital formats continue their rapid growth, traditional print reading has remained resilient, with new data showing enduring public demand for immersive, long-form reading experiences. The national survey found that 45.9 percent of Chinese adults still prefer reading printed books, particularly full-length literary works, highlighting that digital growth has not displaced demand for traditional reading formats.

Wu Shulin, chairman of the Publishers Association of China, emphasized that deep, focused reading remains the foundation for personal growth, professional advancement, and moral cultivation even in an increasingly digital age. He called for stronger public guidance to help readers navigate digital content and deepen a national culture of deep reading, encouraging audiences to move beyond superficial fragmented browsing to engage in more intentional, in-depth reading practices.

HONG KONG — Nearly a year after a devastating large-scale blaze tore through Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district, affected residents have begun the long process of returning to their fire-ravaged homes in organized, staggered groups to collect remaining personal belongings, with the first phase of the operation launching on Monday, April 20, 2026.

To guarantee the safety of every resident entering the damaged building and coordinate the smooth execution of the retrieval operation, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government has mobilized a force of more than 1,000 personnel from multiple government departments and public service agencies. The carefully planned operation is scheduled to run through May 4, giving registered residents adequate time to collect items they left behind after the 2025 fire forced an emergency evacuation of the residential block.

According to Cheuk Wing-hing, Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration of the HKSAR government, all residents participating in the retrieval process will receive full personal protective gear before entering the site, including safety helmets, disposable face masks, heavy-duty work gloves and other necessary equipment to guard against structural hazards and residual toxic smoke or debris. Every resident is escorted round-trip to their unit by trained personnel, either serving police officers or volunteers from the Civil Aid Service.

Chris Tang Ping-keung, HKSAR Secretary for Security, further outlined the multi-layered safety arrangements put in place for the operation. To respond to any unexpected situation that may arise during the retrieval, dedicated police and Civil Aid Service personnel will be stationed on every floor of the residential block to provide on-demand, immediate assistance. Additionally, fully qualified medical teams and emergency response staff will remain on standby at the site throughout the operation, with multiple ambulances parked nearby to handle any medical emergencies quickly.