Sales of Women as Wives Reported Growing in China

BEIJING —  Sales of women to men unable to find wives in other ways has increased in China in recent years, the official Wenzhai newspaper said over the weekend.

It said 323 women were sold in Sichuan province in 1986 and 132 in one county in Hubei province in 1986 and 1987.

One 19-year-old woman from Hunan in southern China was sold as a “common wife” to four brothers between 30 and 40 years old in Shandong province, the newspaper said.

Another’s Achilles tendon was cut by the man who bought her so she could not escape, it said.

Rural Jobs Scarce

It said the business flourishes because many farmers cannot find wives, and many women from rural areas find jobs scarce.

Nearly all the women are poorly educated, come from remote, backward areas and are deceived into believing they are leaving home to work or study, Wenzhai said.

In addition, some local officials and policemen do not cooperate in investigations, it said.

The newspaper reported the case of a schoolteacher from Guangxi who had to pay police in Beijing $800 to buy back a daughter who had been sold to a worker as a wife.