China does not recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions. Since 1 October 2017, couples have been able to enter into guardianship agreements, offering partners some limited legal benefits, including decisions about medical and personal care, death and funeral, property management, and maintenance of rights and interests. Attempts to legalise same-sex marriage in 2020 were unsuccessful, but public opinion polls show that support for same-sex marriage is rising in China.
In Hong Kong, the same-sex partners of local residents are able to obtain a dependent visa. Same-sex spouses of government employees also receive the same spousal benefits, which includes medical care and joint tax assessment, as heterosexual spouses. Hong Kong courts have also ruled in favor of equal treatment for same-sex couples with regard to parental recognition after the breakdown of the relationship and inheritance rights.
Immigration, tax and inheritance rights
Beijing
Beijing provides dependent residency status to the same-sex foreign partners of legal foreign residents. It is not clear whether this extends to the foreign partner of a local Chinese resident. Beginning on 1 July 2013, foreign same-sex partners (including married couples) of residents became eligible for residency status in Beijing under a "dependent resident status". This law only applies to the municipality of Beijing. The key beneficiaries were expected to be white-collar foreign expats whose partners and spouses were able to accompany them and gain residency status in Beijing as a result of the law.
Hong Kong
In 2014, Hong Kong immigration officer Angus Leung Chun-kwong married his same-sex partner, Scott Adams, in New Zealand. Following the wedding, Leung attempted to update his marital status with the Civil Service Bureau, whose policy states that officers' partners can receive spousal benefits, which includes medical care and joint tax assessment. The Bureau rejected Leung's attempts to extend these benefits to Adams, prompting a legal challenge, Leung Chun Kwong v Secretary for the Civil Service, in court. On 6 June 2019, after conflicting decisions from lower courts, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that the Civil Service Bureau and the Inland Revenue Department had unlawfully discriminated against the couple, and ruled that the same-sex spouse of a government employee should receive the same spousal benefits as an opposite-sex spouse. In 2020, the Inland Revenue Department issued regulations as a result of the court decision stating that "any married person – regardless if he or she is in a heterosexual marriage or same-sex marriage – is now entitled to elect joint assessment or personal assessment jointly with the person's spouse, as well as to claim allowances or deductions in respect of his or her spouse. In addition, he or she is also eligible to sponsor his or her spouse for a dependant visa/entry permit for entry into Hong Kong."
A Hong Kong court ruled in September 2017 that a lesbian expatriate worker could live in the territory with her partner as a dependant and ordered the government to issue her a spousal visa. The ruling was labelled "a big win" by Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, Hong Kong's first openly gay lawmaker. The Hong Kong Government appealed the ruling in November 2017, and it was upheld in July 2018 by the Court of Final Appeal in QT v Director of Immigration. The ruling became effective on 19 September 2018. In September 2020, the Hong Kong High Court ruled that same-sex couples should receive equal treatment under inheritance law. The case challenged the city's inheritance and intestacy laws which forbade a gay person from inheriting the estate of their partner without a will. Judge Anderson Chow Ka-ming ruled in Ng Hon Lam Edgar v Secretary for Justice that the policy was "unlawful discrimination". In May 2021, the Court of First Instance ruled in favor of equal parental rights for lesbian couples in S v KG. The court ruled that following the breakdown of the relationship the non-biological mother should be granted joint custody, shared care and guardianship rights of her children, despite not being legally recognized as the children's mother.