Prosecutors in Shanxi decline to charge man who fathered children with woman with mental illness

Prosecutors in Heshun County in Shanxi Province decided not to charge a man identified by the surname Zhang with rape after he fathered children with a woman who had a mental illness, a decision that was reported by The New York Times on Jan. 29, 2026 and has touched off debate about consent and China’s push for babies.

A copy of the prosecutors’ decision said they concluded the woman’s mental illness left her unable to defend herself from sexual assault but that Mr. Zhang had not committed a crime because he had lived with her for a long time and had children with her, reasoning that his conduct was "fundamentally different from rape." The man had previously been detained on suspicion of rape after public pressure, the paper reported.

The case has contrasted with prosecutions of two other villagers: prosecutors charged them with raping the woman and cited a doctor’s assessment that she had "no sexual self-defense capacity," a term from official guidelines for evaluating potential rape victims with mental disorders.

An indictment in one case said, "The defendant knew that the victim had a mental illness and had sex with her multiple times," adding that the circumstances were "egregious." The case revived wider concerns about how Chinese authorities treat sexual consent and childbearing. Chinese criminal law does not explicitly define sexual consent and defines rape by "violence, coercion or other means;" marital rape is not defined as a crime.

heshun county shanxi, shanxi province prosecutors, zhang declined to charge, bu mental illness, ms. bu case, mr. zhang children, hua hua missing woman, jinzhong city origin, schizophrenia hospitalization, chinese criminal law rape, marital rape not defined, prosecutors' decision reasoning, detained on suspicion of rape, two villagers indicted, egregious circumstances indictment, child trafficking vs private adoption, china's push for babies, social media censorship weibo, yan senlin commentary, the new york times report, wedding celebration held