China police raids rescue 1,100 trafficked women

The demand for foreign brides in China has skyrocketed in recent years. Experts say it’s a legacy of the country’s former one-child policy, which skewed the gender balance toward men.

In this April 29, 2019 photo, graffiti advertising a marriage agent is spray-painted on the wall of a warehouse in Pei County in eastern China's Jiangsu province. In China, demand for foreign brides has mounted, a legacy of the one-child policy that skewed the country’s gender balance toward males. In recent years, tens of thousands of Chinese workers have gone to Pakistan to work on China's Belt and Road construction projects, and some returned to China with Pakistani wives.

Chinese authorities say they have rescued more than 1,100 abducted foreign women in police raids coordinated with five Southeast Asian countries.

The Ministry of Public Security said Friday that more than 1,300 suspects had been arrested for allegedly luring and kidnapping women after promising jobs or marriages. The joint operation ran from July to December last year.

The demand for foreign brides in China has skyrocketed in recent years. Experts say it’s a legacy of the country’s former one-child policy, which skewed the gender balance toward men.

Advocacy groups say Southeast Asian women are frequently lured across China’s porous southern border and then drugged. They say many trafficked women have trouble finding help in China because restrictions on non-governmental organizations make it difficult for support networks to operate.