UNDER CHINA'S new civil code, adopted in May, couples will have to wait 30 days between registering their intent to split for good and actually doing so. Nothing wrong with that, some might argue-many other countries have similar "cool-ing-off" requirements. On matters related to marriage, Chinese law is still remarkably liberal. Yet weeks after the restriction was introduced (it will take effect in January), many netizens remain furious. It will, they say, imperil the lives of women. The Communist Party sometimes allows, or even encourages, debate about laws before they are passed. But the passions this new requirement has aroused, and their persistence well beyond the law's adoption by the country's rubber-stamp parliament, have been unusual. The hash-tag "oppose cooling-off" has been viewed over 40.6m times on Weibo, a Twitter-like service. "I am 22 years old this year. I am afraid of getting married after reading the new marriage law," was one comment.
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