Revised Chinese Law Says Children need to Frequently Visit their Elderly Parents

Under the amended 'PRC Law on Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly', old parents in China can sue their children of negligence if they fail to visit frequently.

About 15 percent of the total population in the country accounts for people aged over 60 years. Many elders in the country feel the empty nest syndrome as their children relocate elsewhere due to better work opportunities.

The new law also requires family members to consider and cater to the spiritual needs of the elderly and not ignore or snub them.

There have been many stories about domestic abuse of elderly people in China, including one instance where a 90-year-old woman was forced by her son to live in a pigsty for about two years.

"It is mainly to stress the right of elderly people to ask for emotional support ... we want to emphasize there is such a need," said Xiao Jinming, a law professor at Shandong University and one of the drafters of the new law, according to the Associated Press.

Can moral values be dictated by the state? Some people seem to disagree.

 "Filial piety should be a natural thing. Why does the government have to use laws to force us to visit our parents? Maybe that's the tragedy of our generation," said a Weibo user according to the South China Morning Post.

Others say that the amended law will put a lot of pressure on young people who move out of their parents' home to look for work.  

"For young people who are abroad or work really far away from their parents, it is just too hard and too expensive to visit their parents. I often go to visit my parents and call them ... (but) if a young person doesn't want to, I doubt such a law will work," Zhang Ye, a 36-year-old university lecturer from eastern Jiangsu Province told AP.