According to the provisions of China's criminal law, rape refers to the act of forcibly having sexual relations with women or raping a young girl 14 by violence, coercion or other means. Marital rape refers to the behavior that the husband uses violence and other means to force sexual relations with his wife during the marriage relationship. Therefore, to put it simply, as long as you have sex with a woman against her will, whether she is married or not, it is rape. Then, can marital rape constitute the crime of rape stipulated in our criminal law? This issue is controversial. From the legal point of view, the husband is not excluded from the subject of rape, so the purpose of rape in criminal law is to protect women's sexual rights from infringement, no matter what the subject of the act is. Marriage can't deprive women of their natural sexual rights, and women still have the right to control her sexual life. The law should try to protect women's natural rights, so in theory, marital rape may also constitute rape.
Legal basis:
Article 236 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC)
Whoever rapes a woman by violence, coercion or other means shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years.
Whoever rapes a girl under the age of 14 shall be given a heavier punishment for rape.
Whoever rapes a woman or rapes a young girl under any of the following circumstances shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years, life imprisonment or death:
(a) Rape of women and young girls;
(2) raping a woman or a number of young girls;
(3) raping a woman in public in a public place;
(four) gang rape of more than two people;
(5) Causing serious injury, death or other serious consequences to the victim.