Every 7.4 seconds, a woman in China faces domestic violence. Can the tide be turned?

After enduring six years of attacks, Shaanxi native Yang Xi killed her husband.
Life with him had been “worse than hell”, but the last straw was when he came up to her with a rope and axe. He threatened to slaughter her family, including her child, if she did not kill herself.
“All those years, he’d often threaten (me) and then make good on those threats,” the 41-year-old recounted. “In that instance, all the grievances accumulated over six years — including him beating my mother and child — finally erupted.”
That night, she picked up the axe and killed him. “I didn’t expect myself to have the guts to do such a thing,” she said.
“Afterwards I was frightened, yet relieved to know that no one would beat me, my mother, my father and my child any more.”
It was not her first abusive relationship. When she was 17, her fiancé became violent after she asked to delay their wedding. According to her mother, he was of “inferior” character and afraid Yang would change her mind.
Over two years, their relationship soured. One day, he pushed her down when they were arguing and gouged her eyes out with his hands. He was sentenced to death, according to her.
Feeling like she could not survive as a blind, unmarried woman in a poor rural area, she got married twice — the second time to the man who beat and threatened her.
She was sentenced to 12 years in jail for killing him and released after eight years. In jail, where she learnt how to be a masseuse, Yang said she met female inmates who had been similarly abused.
About one in four women in China are said to have experienced domestic violence. Every 7.4 seconds, another woman falls victim to this deeply entrenched problem, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, the country’s largest women’s organisation.