China warns its leftover men against ‘buying foreign wives'
The Chinese government has warned its citizens in Bangladesh against "buying a foreign wife" amid growing reports of marriage scams and human trafficking in the South Asian country.
The Chinese embassy in Dhaka late on Sunday urged Chinese citizens not to be 'misled' by posts on social media offering quick marriages abroad.
The embassy stated that, according to Chinese law, no marriage agency was allowed to offer international matchmaking services, while citizens were barred from hiding such activities through deception or for profit.
Chinese citizens were advised to stay away from commercial cross-border marriage agencies and remain vigilant against online romance scams to avoid both financial and personal losses, the embassy added.
China has a reported surplus of 35 million men who are unable to find brides in part due to the Chinese government's three-decade-long one-child policy, which pushed families to prefer male children. Girls were either selectively aborted or abandoned.
China has also witnessed a steep decline in marriages, with 6.1 million marriage registrations nationwide in 2024, compared to 7.7 million the previous year. The decline is mostly driven by factors such as increased economic pressures, rising cost of living, and Chinese women pushing back against patriarchal gender expectations.
There are growing reports that a generation of so-called "leftover men" (shengnan shidai in Chinese) are looking towards Pakistan, Russia, Bangladesh and other nations to "purchase" brides.
The growing demand for these brides has fuelled human trafficking, with children and women from South and Southeast Asian countries being smuggled into China. Bangladeshi women are among those who have been allegedly being sold in China by criminal gangs under the pretext of marriage, according to a Daily Star report.
The embassy warned that those involved in illegal cross-border marriages in Bangladesh may face arrest on suspicion of trafficking.
Ding Changfa, an associate professor from the School of Economics at Xiamen University, faced backlash after suggesting that men in China could consider marrying women from Russia, Vietnam and Pakistan to end the marriage crisis.
'In rural China, we have approximately 34.9 million 'leftover men' who might face the marriage pressures of providing housing, cars, and bride price totalling between 500,000 yuan (£51,100) and 600,000 yuan (£61,400)," he was quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying.
'Last year [2023], the average disposable income per capita in rural areas across China was just over 20,000 yuan (£2,000). Solving this issue could involve attracting a significant number of eligible young women from overseas,' he added.
Pakistan has been at the heart of the trafficking ring, where parents in poor Christian families were being pressured to offer up their daughters to Chinese men, according to reports.
Human Rights Watch in a 2019 report said women were trafficked to China through 'a porous border and lack of response by law enforcement agencies on both sides [has] created an environment in which traffickers flourish.'
The group called on China and Pakistan to act in the face of 'increasing evidence that Pakistani women and girls are at risk of sexual slavery in China'.
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