China has long been criticized as a favoured destination for the trafficking of women and for failing to address its severe gender imbalance. Even today, these accusations hold true. In its recent report, the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) unveiled shocking revelations about women from Myanmar being openly sold in China. Indeed, China has become a hub for trafficking women from neighbouring countries like Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, and even regions in Africa.
KWAT’s report, Sold to China, spanning 2019 to 2023, highlights an alarming rise in the trafficking of women from Myanmar, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Under duress, families often sell their daughters to Chinese men. Previously, most cases of human trafficking were concentrated in Myanmar’s Kachin and Shan states. However, recent data indicates that over half of the victims now come from other regions, including Myanmar’s major cities. For the fortunate few who managed to escape, freedom came only after years of captivity or after bearing children with their Chinese husbands.
Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, economic desperation has driven many families to marry their daughters to Chinese nationals. KWAT investigations also revealed cases where relatives or acquaintances deceived women with promises of lucrative jobs in China, only for them to end up trafficked into Chinese-run cyber-scam operations in northern Shan.
The trafficking of women to China is not confined to Myanmar. In 2019, over 600 impoverished Pakistani girls and women were sold as brides to Chinese men in less than two years, according to investigations by Pakistani authorities. Al Jazeera reported that Pakistani investigators had compiled a list of 629 victims as they worked to dismantle trafficking networks preying on the country’s poor and vulnerable.
Women from Southeast Asia and Africa are trafficked to China each year, lured by the promise of marriage and financial stability. While some women migrate voluntarily to marry, many are deceived, trapped, and subjected to violence, sexual abuse, and forced labour.
A significant factor driving this crisis is China’s one-child policy, which formally ended in 2016, and the cultural preference for sons. This has created a gender imbalance, leaving the country with about 35 million more males than females, as per the 2020 census. The scarcity of women has led to a surge in bride prices and normalized exploitative practices like paying brokers or matchmakers exorbitant fees—sometimes exceeding $40,000.
Economic vulnerabilities, systemic gender inequalities, and geopolitical dynamics have allowed trafficking networks to thrive. China’s growing economic influence has opened doors to exploitative practices, where promises of employment and security often lead to trafficking under the guise of marriage or labour.
The case of Xiao Huamei, a mentally incapacitated woman chained to a hut in 2022 after being trafficked for 24 years, serves as a stark reminder of the prevalence of marriage trafficking. Her story is not an isolated one. Foreign women are similarly exploited, sold to Chinese men to bear children, and subjected to abuse. Traffickers target vulnerable young women and children, using coercion, violence, and threats to smuggle them into China.
Women fleeing political unrest and economic instability in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Vietnam are particularly susceptible. Brokers offer well-paying job opportunities, tricking women into arrangements that meet the criteria for marriage trafficking. The methods of transportation, involving coercion and violence, clearly constitute human trafficking.
The U.S. State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report highlights that the Chinese government has done little to address trafficking within its borders. Appeals from trafficked women often go unanswered, and authorities rarely act against perpetrators of marriage trafficking. Moreover, marriages between foreign women and Chinese men are seldom officially registered, leaving women and their children without legal protection or government support.
For many women, migration to China is driven by economic necessity. China’s relatively better economy promises a higher quality of life than what is possible in their home countries. The COVID-19 pandemic briefly slowed trafficking due to strict border controls, but irregular migration and trafficking resumed after 2022. Meanwhile, the pandemic’s economic fallout in Southeast Asia has worsened the conditions driving forced marriages.
As for China, its handling of women’s rights has been marked by persistent neglect and prioritization of economic gains over human dignity. The exploitation of women—through trafficking, forced marriages, and systemic abuse—continues to raise global concerns. Activists argue that the Chinese government’s approach reflects a troubling disregard for the rights and welfare of both domestic and foreign women, highlighting the need for immediate and sustained action against these violations. Activists argue that the exploitation of women—domestic and foreign alike—is a tool China uses to further its ambitions, with little regard for human dignity.
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