Bride trafficking has emerged as a growing issue in China as ‘leftover’ men struggle to find spouses.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31178698

[This is a piece by Research Scholar of East Asia Studies in History Division, Lund University, Sweden.]

Unable to find a domestic spouse, some Chinese men have turned to “purchasing” foreign brides. The growing demand for these brides, particularly in rural areas, has fuelled a rise in illegal marriages. This includes marriages involving children and women who have been trafficked into China primarily from neighbouring countries in south-east Asia.

[…]

Determining the extent of illegal cross-border marriages in China is challenging due to the clandestine nature of these activities. But the most recent data from the UK’s Home Office suggests that 75% of Vietnamese human-trafficking victims were smuggled to China, with women and children making up 90% of cases.

[…]

The Woman from Myanmar, an award-winning documentary from 2022, follows the story of a trafficked Myanmar woman who was sold into marriage in China. The film exposes the harsh realities faced by many trafficked brides.

It captures not only the coercion and abuse many of these women endure, but also their struggle for autonomy and survival in a system that treats them as commodities. Larry, a trafficked woman who features in the documentary, explained that she saw her capacity to bear children as her pathway to survival.

[…]

  • Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
    1·
    3 days ago

    As an example among countless others of your so-called ‘unintentional consequences,’ this is from 2012, when the one-child policy was still in place and there was outrage after Chinese woman forced to abort in seventh month

    A woman in the western [Chinese] town of Ankang posted a gruesome photo after she was forced to have an abortion in the seventh month of her pregnancy. After the photo spread across the Internet in China, authorities in the Shannxi province have announced that they are sending a team to investigate, and will “deal with the case seriously in accordance with the law.” […]

    Feng told a Caixin reporter that she was forced into the abortion because she can’t afford the 40,000 RMB ($6,300) penalty imposed by the local family planning department […]

    Feng Jianmei said that on June 2 more than 20 staff from the town’s family planning department came to her home and arrested her. On the way to the hospital, as she resisted, she said she was beaten by the authorities.

    During the injection, lethal to the fetus, none of her family was allowed to be present. When her father-in-law heard the news and rushed to the hospital he was prevented from entering the obstetrics ward. […]