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Laura Zhou

China’s embassy in Bangladesh has joined a number of Chinese diplomatic missions warning the country’s citizens about using illegal matchmaking services to find brides.
Anyone who goes to the South Asian country to find a wife using brokers or agencies could face arrest on suspicion of human trafficking, the embassy said in a social media post on Tuesday.
Under Bangladeshi law, a human trafficking conviction carries a minimum sentence of seven years in prison plus a fine of at least 500,000 taka (US$4,100), though the punishment can be as severe as life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
Less severe offences related to trafficking, such as instigating the crime, carry penalties of three to seven years behind bars, with a fine of up to 20,000 taka.
There had been a spike in cross-border marriage scams involving Chinese nationals, the embassy said.
International marriages must be built on mutual consent and genuine affection, the embassy said, adding that bride-buying often led to financial extortion and physical danger.
Beijing is growing increasingly concerned over the international matchmaking market, which is outlawed in China.
The black market has boomed partly due to China’s severe gender imbalance, which has left the country with an estimated 17.5 million more men of marriageable age than women, according to the 2020 national census.


Amid the boom, Chinese authorities have been trying to protect foreign citizens from marital trafficking while also preventing their own people from losing huge sums of money to sophisticated international scams.
In the past few years, Chinese embassies and consulates in Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Pakistan and Nepal have issued warnings against marriage fraud.
Beijing has ramped up its own crackdown – between January 2024 and March 2025, 1,546 people were arrested for criminal activities related to human trafficking and fraudulent matchmaking schemes, according to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
In some cases, Chinese men who paid tens of thousands of yuan to find a wife found their foreign brides had disappeared without a trace, while in other cases, women were kidnapped and forced to marry Chinese men.
In March last year, eight Chinese nationals were arrested in Madagascar on charges of smuggling young women to China with false promises of jobs.
Police in Hunan, Anhui and Shandong provinces recently launched a joint crackdown after three Myanmese women confessed they came to China specifically to orchestrate marriage scams. The operation led to 63 criminal prosecutions, 33 administrative punishments and the seizure of over 5 million yuan (US$738,000) in assets.
The gang behind the trafficking had a presence in China, Vietnam and Myanmar, state broadcaster CGTN reported in April.


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Crime

Don’t buy brides, China’s Bangladesh embassy warns as trafficking surges

The black market for brides has boomed in part due to China's gender imbalance, which has left the country with millions more men than women. Photo: Shutterstock

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High youth unemployment is one of the factors contributing to a low marriage rate among men in rural China, according to University of Wisconsin demographer Yi Fuxian. Photo: Shutterstock

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Video footage of a mother of eight chained by her neck has shocked China. Photo: Weibo

A woman inspecting rows of profiles strung up between trees during a matchmaking event in Jinan in eastern China’s Shandong province. Photo: AFP

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Myanmar’s Myawaddy town as seen from across the border in Mae Sot, Thailand. Authorities in China have identified 36 major Chinese telecoms scam gangs operating in the Myawaddy region. Photo: AFP

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Newly-weds at a group ceremony in Urumqi, Xinjiang this month. The government is trying to encourage young people to get married. Photo: Xinhua

News

China

Diplomacy

Officials warn Chinese citizens of a spike in international marriage scams and the risk of prosecution


Officials warn Chinese citizens of a spike in international marriage scams and the risk of prosecution.


Bangladesh

Vietnam

Madagascar

Myanmar

Don’t buy brides, China’s Bangladesh embassy warns as trafficking surges

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Officials warn Chinese citizens of a spike in international marriage scams and the risk of prosecution

Officials warn Chinese citizens of a spike in international marriage scams and the risk of prosecution