Human trafficking refers to the trade of human beings for purposes like forced labor, commercial exploitation, and sexual slavery. In China, human trafficking is often seen in the form of bride trafficking, in which young girls and women are sold into sexual slavery under the guise of marriage. While the Communist Party’s rise to power in 1949 saw a decrease in female trafficking, this took a sharp turn in the late 1970s, when some of China’s most restrictive policies were put into effect. China’s one-child policy and patriarchal society have made the country ripe for trafficking.
A Market for Trafficking
The nation’s one-child policy (which was forced from 1979 to 2015), combined with the society’s preference for male children, has resulted in a disproportionate population that has 30-40 million more men than women.
Because of the one-child policy, Chinese families were forced to choose between offspring, with the majority choosing to have sons over daughters. One contributing factor is the expectation of sons to financially support the parents while daughters are expected to join other families through marriage. Another is the desire to see the family line continue.
The disproportionate population has become even more glaring in rural communities, where women migrate to more developed areas in hopes of finding financially stable husbands. Families and villagers, therefore, resort to purchasing brides for single men, even when this is against the bride’s will.
A Global Affair
China’s disproportionate rural male population is offset by Vietnam’s rural female population. Societal expectations in Vietnam force single women into marriage, and Vietnamese women are often kidnapped or sold in order to provide suitable wives to Chinese men.
However, it’s not just Vietnamese women who have fallen victim to bride trafficking. This also includes ethnic minorities from Myanmar and runaways from North Korea. A three-year investigation from Human Rights Watch has shown bride trafficking spread across Asia, with more than half a dozen countries supplying brides to China. These include Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, North Korea, Vietnam, and Myanmar.
Every year, hundreds of young girls and women are trafficked to China – this is from Myanmar alone. Often promised employment, these women are sold as brides and kept in sexual slavery, locked in a room, and perpetually raped until they deliver children. Sold for amounts ranging from $3000 to $13,000, many have been forced to undergo fertility treatment, and those who have escaped to tell the tale have had to leave their children behind.
Hope for Change?
When bride trafficking was restricted to minorities and those on the run, there wasn’t much hope for the Chinese government to do anything about the problem. However, since 2019, this issue has come to light with popular media outlets like The New York Times and BBC reporting on it.
However, despite investigations and criminal cases brought forward, those responsible have not been punished. In October 2019, 31 traffickers were acquitted because victims and witnesses were bribed and threatened into silence.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse – a 2020 article stated that financial hardship worsened by the pandemic drove even more Cambodian girls and women into bride trafficking. Despite horrifying experiences of forced labor, rape, and torture, the trade continues. With families complicit and governments turning a blind eye, it’s difficult to say when, or if the victims will get justice.
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