Legal practitioners and child rights advocates are calling on authorities to improve the country's laws on child abuse, saying that the current law requires that a child sue his or her parents in order to make the charges stick.

The issue is coming to the forefront after a couple from Southwest China's Guizhou province was detained for allegedly burning their 6-year-old daughter with red-hot fire poker and using other torture-like discipline to "educate" the girl.

"I hope the tragedy involving Ting Ting will wake our legislators up to enact a specific law on child abuse," said Zhang Hongfeng, a children's rights advocate from Xiangtan of Central China's Hunan province, told China Daily. "Many child abusers have escaped serious legal sanctions over the years because of this legal loophole."