China's Trafficked Brides

[M-Dent]

China’s Trafficked Brides

The saying might be “love don’t cost a thing,” but in China, hopeful Shanghainese grooms are expected to pay as much as $147,000 to their future bride’s family. This growing cost, driven by a shortage of Chinese women, is why some bachelors are heading abroad in search of wives.

While stories of Chinese men finding love in unexpected places have appeared on Chinese social media and the international press, they belie a darker reality: rampant sex trafficking in China and its neighboring countries.

Marriage in China has been upended by a mix of demographic changes, traditional customs, and market forces. At the heart of the problem is a greatly skewed gender balance with significantly more men of marrying age than women. As a result, men have resorted to different extremes when it comes to finding a bride – some far more sinister than others, whether they know it or not.

As some middle-class Chinese men have turned to Eastern Europe, poor bachelors in rural areas have resorted to mail-order brides from Southeast Asia, which has fueled sex trafficking.

Adding to the gender imbalance, the One Child Policy put fertility rates below replacement levels. So China is now faced with a rapidly shrinking and aging workforce, a crippling economic and social trend.

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The trend has been well-documented, and in some areas fairly common. In one remote village deep in the mountains of Henan, more than 20 Vietnamese women have wed local men. Marrying a Vietnamese bride costs $3,200, less than a quarter of the bride price for a local woman.

While many Vietnamese women willingly get married and move to rural China for love or economic reasons, others are forced.

thediplomat.com/2017/07/chinas-trafficked-brides/

Terrible problems.

 

[MaryT777]

Terrible problems.

This is so sad from the article.

“Monetary values have quite literally been assigned to women. Economic pressures encourage those with lesser means to “shop around” and find the lowest price, which provides ample opportunities for human smugglers to exploit.”

For women to become such a commodity is horrifying to me.

Have mercy on us and on the whole world.

I pray that China can find a way to handle these trafficked brides so women are not exploited.

Mary.

 

[Catholic1954]

Terrible problems.

It’s only going to get worse. China (and India) have been messing up the male/female ratio for decades, and now SURPRISE! there are not enough women to marry. Their populations will be in decline, just like the West, by the end of the century.

 

[joeybaggz]

The scarier possibility is for the government to conscript those young men between 17 and 35 who have nothing better to occupy their time and give them an uniform and a gun. And a bride (talk about human trafficking!) A standing army of ten to fifty million?, that’s a whole lot more frightening to me than buying a bride (though I agree with those who decry that situation.)

 

[Theo520]

A reverse dowry, how times are changing.

 

[PseuTonym]

I’m sure that if young men in China need wives, then the government of China will provide brides. After all, the government of China has a philosophy that structures the entire society to ensure that whatever people need is provided.

The only thing that the government of China needs to do is find the people who have the ability to create young, adult women. The people who are employed by the government of China are unfortunately incompetent. However, they might be able to find the lazy people who have ability, and force those lazy people to use their ability to provide young, adult men with the needed supply of young, adult women.

On the other hand, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the government of China employs people who have ability. In that case, they can provide everything, and solve all problems. The people who cannot get hired by the government of China might have less ability and greater need. We just need a way to get weapons to the general public in China so that they can force the able bureaucrats to provide for the needs of the people. Forget about arming and training moderate rebels in Syria. The people who need weapons are ordinary people in China who don’t work for the government of China.

 

[TheAmazingGrace]

Terrible problems.

I’ve seen several documentaries on marriage in China, and part of the problem comes from the fact that after a Chinese woman hits 27, she is considered a “leftover woman”, i.e. undesirable as a wife.

Apparently beggars can be choosers.

 

[MaryT777]

I’ve seen several documentaries on marriage in China, and part of the problem comes from the fact that after a Chinese woman hits 27, she is considered a “leftover woman”, i.e. undesirable as a wife.

Apparently beggars can be choosers.

Unvbelievable, a “leftover woman.” How sad.

 

[Roselle]

I can remember a Chinese friend running into this issue a decade ago. His nephew, a SWAT type police officer, was getting married. As my friend was telling me, the bride was demanding many items before getting married. It was the newish custom in China he said. My friend was put in charge of finding an apartment to buy and decorate. In the end the bride was not happy with the furniture decorating and required it to be redone before she would marry. She got her way. Last I heard the couple eventually got married.

 

[Sarcelle]

I’ve seen several documentaries on marriage in China, and part of the problem comes from the fact that after a Chinese woman hits 27, she is considered a “leftover woman”, i.e. undesirable as a wife.

Apparently beggars can be choosers.

I am not surprised.

They say the same thing in Japan and Korea.

In most of Asia, especially East Asia, women are considered as nothing more than commodities with sell by dates.

 

[PseuTonym]

I am not surprised.

They say the same thing in Japan and Korea.

In most of Asia, especially East Asia, women are considered as nothing more than commodities with sell by dates.

In economic terms, wouldn’t women at least be capital equipment? You’re talking about depreciation. Everybody dies, so everybody has a sell-by-date.