26-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Chinese embassy warns citizens against ‘buying foreign wife' scams in Bangladesh
China's embassy in Bangladesh on Sunday issued a notice to Chinese citizens to avoid the 'misguided notion' of 'buying a foreign wife' through online matchmaking scams.
Advertisement
The statement published on the embassy's social media account urged Chinese nationals to stay away from illegal agencies that promote cross-border blind dates and marriages 'to avoid losing both money and person'.
The embassy warned that individuals involved in illegal marriages in the South Asian country risked being arrested for human trafficking, a charge that often triggers lengthy judicial proceedings that could last months or even years.
Cross-border marriage agencies are illegal under Chinese law, but online advertisements promoting foreign brides have begun to appear more frequently as China faces declining marriage rates and a gender imbalance.
Last year, China saw its lowest number of marriage registrations since 1980, with just 6.1 million marriage certificates issued, a decline of more than 20 per cent from 2023.
Advertisement
According to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, there are an estimated 30 million more men than women in China, a legacy of decades of strict
family planning policies
