Brides For Sale: Vietnamese Women Trafficked To China

While China grapples with the economic and demographic consequences of its family planning policies, Cat Barton describes their role in fueling human trafficking from neighboring countries. From AFP:

When Kiab turned 16, her brother promised to take her to a party in a tourist town in northern Vietnam. Instead, he sold her to a Chinese family as a bride.

The ethnic Hmong teenager spent nearly a month in China until she was able to escape her new husband, seek help from local police and return to Vietnam.

[…] Vulnerable women in countries close to China – not only Vietnam but also North Korea, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar – are being forced into marriages in the land of the one-child policy, experts say.

China suffers from one of the worst gender imbalances in the world as families prefer male children.

As a result millions of men now cannot find Chinese brides – a key driver of trafficking, according to rights groups. [Source]