Mediation of Divorce in China

Western mediators have accepted at face value claims as to the general acceptability and voluntariness of Chinese mediation. Their failure to attend to the cultural context in which Chinese mediation practices are embedded has led to a partial and uncritical impression. Those who cite current mediation practices in China either as positive examples or as models to follow should note mediation's implication in the social control exercised by an authoritarian government and the maintenance of feudal, or patriarchal, norms.