Perspective | Safeguarding Growth: Examining the Priority Reservation of Child Support and the Remedies for Minors’ Rights Through a Case Involving an Enforcement Objection
Published:
2026-02-04
In real life, when parents’ marital relationship comes to an end, minor children are inevitably confronted with emotional turmoil and the need to restructure their lives. However, regardless of how the relationship between the parents may change, the responsibility and obligation to care for minor children remain a bottom line firmly established by both law and ethics— a responsibility that cannot be shirked.
In real life, when parents’ marital relationship comes to an end, minor children are inevitably confronted with emotional turmoil and the need to restructure their lives. However, regardless of how the relationship between the parents may change, the responsibility and obligation to care for minor children remain a bottom line firmly established by both law and ethics— a responsibility that cannot be shirked.
I. Basic Facts of the Case
In May 2019, Li and Dong signed a divorce agreement and completed the divorce registration procedures due to marital discord. The agreement stipulated that their biological daughter, Li Moumou, would be raised by Dong, and Li was required to pay Dong a monthly child support allowance of 2,000 yuan. In June 2022, because Li had been in arrears with child support payments, Li Moumou filed a lawsuit against Li in the People’s Court. Following mediation by the Mediation Committee of the People’s Court, the two parties reached a mediation agreement, which was subsequently judicially confirmed by a ruling issued by the court.
In December 2023, because Li refused to fulfill his obligation to pay child support as stipulated in the legally effective document, Li Moumou applied to the court for compulsory enforcement, and the case was thus entered into the enforcement proceedings. Under the court’s mediation, the two parties reached an enforcement settlement, lifting the freeze on Li’s WeChat account and bank cards. Although this settlement temporarily resolved the issue, it also laid the groundwork for future conflicts—specifically, it did not establish, at the root level, a “safe account” free from claims by other creditors for future child-support payments.
In October 2024, Li and Cheng brought a lawsuit to the People’s Court over a dispute arising from a private loan. The court issued a civil judgment in accordance with the law, ordering Li to repay Cheng the loan amount of 150,000 yuan plus interest. Since Li failed to fulfill the repayment obligation stipulated in the legally effective document within the prescribed time limit, Cheng applied to the People’s Court for compulsory enforcement, and the case has now entered the enforcement procedure.
The central issue in this case is: Can Cheng, as the applicant for a general monetary claim, demand that the court enforce execution unconditionally against those funds in Li’s account that are explicitly designated for child support payments or amounts legally required to be reserved for child support?
II. The “Quasi-Priority” of Child Support and Its Legal Basis
From a legal perspective, Alimony claim This indeed differs from the statutory priority rights under the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law or the Maritime Law. In the extreme case where the debtor (such as Li in this case) becomes bankrupt or his assets are insufficient to satisfy all debts, Li’s claim for child support and Cheng’s private loan claim would, in principle, both be treated as ordinary claims on the bankruptcy estate distribution schedule and would be repaid according to the proportion of each claim. This is a formal manifestation of the principle of equality among creditors.
However, this formal equality must give way to higher legal principles when it comes to safeguarding the fundamental survival rights of minors. The “priority” of child support payments does not stem directly from a statutory ranking of claims; rather, it is rooted in the following unshakeable legal principles:
(1) The Principle of Priority of the Right to Survival: The timely payment of child support is closely linked to the basic needs of minors—including clothing, food, housing, transportation, education, and medical care—and directly affects their most fundamental right to survival. In the hierarchy of legal values, this right occupies the highest priority. The creditor rights arising from ordinary commercial and consumer loans protect property rights; yet, when conflicts arise, the right to survival should naturally be given precedence.
(2) Mandatory preservation of “essential living expenses”: Article 254 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that if the party obligated to perform fails to fulfill the obligations determined by the legal documents as notified by the enforcement authority, the people's court is entitled to withhold and extract from the obligated party’s income the portion corresponding to the obligations it is required to perform. However, the living expenses necessary for the obligated party and its dependents must be retained. In this case, Li Moumou’s child support payments represent precisely the core component of the “necessary living expenses” that the law explicitly requires must be reserved for him.
(3) The principle of “the best interests of the minor”: Articles 1067 and 1085 of the Civil Code establish the principle of “the best interests of the minor.” Given the ongoing nature of parents’ duty to support their children, judicial rulings should not only confirm existing obligations but also take necessary measures to ensure that these obligations continue to be fulfilled consistently and stably in the future—thus fully meeting the core requirement of maximizing the interests of minors.
III. Institutional Exploration: Building and Improving the Mechanism for Reserving Child Support Payments
(1) The Realistic Dilemma of the Difficulty in Enforcing Child Support Payments
Currently, the enforcement of child support disputes faces multiple challenges, leaving the rights and interests of minors frequently exposed to uncertain risks. Behind the difficulties in enforcing child support judgments lie complex legal interpretation disputes and practical dilemmas, primarily manifested in the following ways: (1) The instability of the paying party—obligors may experience a sudden decline or loss of ability to fulfill their obligations due to unemployment, illness, remarriage and subsequent childbirth, or malicious transfer of assets; (2) The time lag in the recovery process—from discovering that the other party has failed to pay, initiating litigation, to finally obtaining enforcement—the entire process can take an extremely long time, during which the minor’s living conditions may already have fallen into serious hardship; (3) The special plight of children born out of wedlock—agreements on child support for such children often lack enforceable guarantees. Once the other party retracts their agreement or becomes unreachable, the avenues for seeking redress become even more limited.
These dilemmas highlight the passivity of relying solely on ex post remedies. Therefore, institutional improvement must shift from “ex post remediation” to “a balanced approach that emphasizes both ex ante prevention and ex post redress,” and... Child Support Escrow Mechanism This is precisely the key link in realizing this shift. Perfecting the mechanism for reserving child support funds represents the law’s preferential protection of minors’ special rights and interests.
(2) Exploring a Model for Reserving Child Support Payments
The child support reserve mechanism refers to a system under which, in divorce and child support disputes involving the custody of children, upon application by the parties or on the court’s own initiative, the party not directly raising the child is ordered to set aside a certain amount of child support for a specified period or provide corresponding property guarantees, thereby ensuring that the minor child will receive child support payments over a predetermined future period. Currently, China’s laws do not yet contain explicit provisions regarding “child support reserves”; however, local courts have already undertaken promising pilot efforts, primarily giving rise to two distinct models:
1. Property Guarantee Model ： If the obligor has assets available for enforcement—such as real estate, vehicles, or equity—but currently faces difficulties in making cash payments or there is a risk that the obligor may fail to fulfill its future obligations, the court may order the obligor to provide security using these assets to guarantee future alimony payments. If the obligor fails to make the required payments by the due date, an application can be made to enforce execution against the secured assets.
2. Deposit-based payment model ： During mediation or judgment, the obligor shall be encouraged or ordered to deposit in a lump sum, into an account designated by the court or a notarization agency, child support payments covering the next six months, one year, or even longer periods. The managing authority will then disburse these funds periodically to the directly custodial parent.
For example, in a divorce case involving a senior executive of a company that was heard by a district court in Shanghai, the husband’s primary source of income was stock options from his company, resulting in unstable cash flow. Ultimately, the court facilitated a mediated settlement agreement: the husband agreed to establish a trust with some of his financial assets under his name. Irrevocable trust The child is designated as the beneficiary and will receive a fixed monthly amount until reaching adulthood. This essentially constitutes an advanced form of “child support reservation” realized through financial instruments.
IV. Relief and Pathways: A Safeguarding Mechanism Centered on the Enforcement Objection Procedure
When parents who have a legal duty to provide support become embroiled in other debt disputes, how can the right to survival of their minor children be safeguarded against being overwhelmed by ordinary monetary claims? Although current laws do not universally place maintenance claims ahead of all other ordinary debts, judicial practice—through the crucial procedures of objections to enforcement and actions for review of enforcement—is now drawing a “minimum survival threshold” that must be preserved amidst the complex web of debt relationships, ensuring that children’s futures are protected.
Specifically in this case, Li and Cheng brought a lawsuit to the court over a loan dispute, and the court ruled that Li was obligated to repay the borrowed funds. After the case entered the enforcement phase, we discovered that the court had neither set aside living expenses for the judgment debtor nor reserved necessary living expenses for Li’s minor child, Li Moumou, whom the debtor is responsible for supporting. When parents’ debts result in the freezing or execution of support accounts, the primary legal tools available to safeguard the living expenses of minor children are “objections to enforcement” and the subsequent “lawsuit challenging enforcement.” In light of this case, the specific procedural path is analyzed as follows:
(1) If an objection is raised against the enforcement action: Li Moumou (represented by Dong Mou as the legal guardian) submitted a written objection to the enforcement court, arguing that the court’s freezing and deduction measures failed to reserve sufficient living expenses for the dependent family members of the judgment debtor, Li Mou, thereby violating the statutory procedures. After review, the court ruled to dismiss the objection. Within 10 days of receiving the dismissal ruling, Li Moumou may file an application for reconsideration with the next higher-level people’s court.
(2) If an objection is raised against the subject of enforcement: Li Moumou, as a non-party (represented by Dong Mou as the legal representative), submitted a written objection to the executing court, asserting that there is a dispute over the ownership of the property rights that the court has frozen and deducted. After review, if the court rules to dismiss the objection, Li Moumou may file an action for objection to enforcement with the people’s court that issued the dismissal ruling within 15 days from the date of receipt of the dismissal ruling.
V. Legislative Outlook and Specific Recommendations
To elevate practical innovations such as the mechanism for reserving child support payments into universally applicable institutional safeguards, we recommend that future legislative amendments or judicial interpretations take into account improvements in the following four areas:
Clarify the court’s jurisdiction: Under the Civil Procedure Law or relevant special procedures for family litigation, courts shall be empowered, in hearing disputes over child support, to order, on their own initiative and based on the specific circumstances of each case (such as the obligor’s unstable employment, potential for dishonesty, or involvement of cross-border factors), to adopt measures such as reservation or security for child support payments.
Diverse forms of reserved property: In addition to cash, various methods can be explicitly adopted, including real estate mortgage registration, pledge of marketable securities, supervision of financial accounts, and designation of beneficiary rights in commercial insurance or trusts.
Establish a dedicated management platform: The court, in collaboration with notary offices or qualified financial institutions, will establish a “Special Management Platform for Alimony Escrow,” enabling standardized custody of funds, timely disbursement, and information access.
Establish a tiered early warning mechanism: Establish an early-warning system based on the consumption of reserved funds or fluctuations in the value of collateral assets. When the reserved funds fall short or the value of the collateral significantly declines, promptly notify the court and the directly custodial party so that supplementary procedures can be initiated in a timely manner.
VI. Conclusion
Child support is crucial to ensuring that minor children can actually receive stable material security. Parents’ obligation to support their children is not waived simply because they are burdened with debt. In enforcement proceedings, people’s courts should reserve sufficient living expenses for the children of the party being enforced against. Perfecting the redress mechanism centered on objections to enforcement is precisely where the warmth and strength of the rule of law are subtly yet profoundly demonstrated. Protecting the healthy growth of minors is, in essence, safeguarding our shared future.
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