Apparently China has an elderly population of some 200 million and increasingly children are not sticking around to care for grandma and grandpa.  The one child mandate has left many elderly without someone to care for them as adult children are pursuing their own goals of career and money–often hundreds of miles away.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/02/world/asia/china-elderly-law/

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-231243

While there doesn’t seem to be a penalty for foregoing frequent visits and phone calls, a person could be haled into court and filed or imprisoned or both.

It does seem like a law unlikely to be enforced, unless there is some tragedy that could have been prevented by frequent calls and visits.