Sex trafficking in China
Sex trafficking in China is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the People's Republic of China. China, the world's most populous country, has one of the highest rates of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, in the world.[1] It is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.[2]
Sex trafficking victims in the country are from all ethnic groups in China and foreigners. Chinese citizens, primarily women and girls, have been sex trafficked to the various provinces of China, as well as other countries in Asia and different continents. They have been detected in overseas Chinese expatriate communities.[3][2] Chinese prostitutes are trafficked overseas, especially in places where there is demand from Chinese male laborers and construction workers.[4] China's internal migrant population, in the hundreds of millions, is particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking.[5] Sex trafficked victims are abducted[6] or deceived and forced into prostitution, marriages,[7] and or pregnancies.[2] They are threatened[8][9] and physically and psychologically harmed.[10][11][12][13] They contract sexually transmitted diseases from rapes, and abuse and starvation are common. Some women and girls die from the poor conditions in captivity[14] or are tortured[15][16] and or murdered.[17][18]
Sex trafficking and exploitation have permeated all levels of Chinese society. Male and female perpetrators in China come from a wide range of backgrounds and every social class. A number of traffickers are members of or facilitated by criminal organizations and gangs. Some government officials and workers, as well as foreigners, have profited from sex trafficking in China.[5] Rising incomes in China have spurred increased consumption of many services, both licit and illicit.[19] It has occurred in businesses linked to China's entertainment and tourism industries, as well as heavy industries and the mining sector.[20] Some reporters suggest that the Belt and Road Initiative and globalization have led to an increase in sex trafficking in China.[21][22] Chinese sex traffickers operate throughout the world.[23] Cybersex trafficking is a growing problem in twenty-first-century China.[24] The global spread of high-speed internet and increase in computer, tablet, and smartphone ownership have fueled online or virtual forced prostitution and sex abuse and the creation of illegal pornographic videos purchased by users worldwide.
The scale of sex trafficking in China is difficult to know because of the lack of primary research and data collection, the clandestine nature of sex trafficking crimes,[7] the fact that only a small minority of cases are reported to the authorities, and other factors.[2][12] Chinese government ministries, as well as international and domestic agencies and organisations, do some work to combat sex trafficking patterns, but this has not brought substantive improvements and responses have proved insufficient.[2] The enforcement of sex trafficking laws and investigating and prosecuting of trafficking cases have been immobilized by interagency collaboration and coordination challenges, logistical difficulties, poor border management,[16] language barriers of foreign victims, political dynamics, corruption, and apathy.[25][26][27][28] Some Chinese police and officials, as well as overseas embassies and diplomatic missions,[29] have been accused of negligence concerning counter-sex trafficking efforts and concern for victims.[30][19][31][12] Available statistics indicate that China needs to devote greater resources and implement better policies and strategies designed to reduce sex trafficking in the country.[25] It is difficult for trading partners of China to criticize the country's inadequate anti-sex trafficking efforts because of fears of tensions.[27] Chinese civil society's efforts in countering sex trafficking are stymied by threats and coercion from criminal organizations and officials and the government's repression of women and human rights organizations, presses, and lawyers.[25][27]
Victims
Victims of sex trafficking for sexual slavery in China include, but are not limited to, children, impoverished, migrants, disabled persons, ethnic and religious minorities, foreigners, and overseas Chinese. It is not uncommon for victims of rape to be used additionally as forced laborers in homes, farms, and businesses.[30] They, particularly forced prostitutes, often contract sexually transmitted diseases because the rapers do not wear condoms.[16] Women and girls have contracted HIV.[32] A number are verbally and physically abused and beaten,[33] starved, drugged,[12][34][35] and sexually tortured.[16][15][36] Many sex-trafficked women and girls are never found.[12]
Surviving victims face ostracization from their families and communities.[37][12] Some victims are discouraged by family and friends from seeking justice. Some in extreme poverty or suffering from trauma or forced drug addiction because of their captors reluctantly return to prostitution after being rescued.[32] Many mothers who fled or were rescued will never be able to see their children held by the buying family or sold by the traffickers.[38] Some former trafficking victims are reluctant to report traffickers to the local authorities because they fear reprisal from criminals.[39] Some recused victims get abducted and sex trafficked again.[40][41]
Trafficking survivors may need urgent medical care for problems ranging from injuries due to abuse to sexual and reproductive health needs. They need shelter as sometimes they cannot return to families that were complicit in their trafficking. They need legal assistance to ensure that the justice system - which too often lets trafficking victims down - is responsive to their needs for accountability and compensation. Many need financial assistance as months and years of sexual slavery resulted in no education and income.[42]
The Chinese government's protection of victims has been criticized. Chinese law enforcement officials have arrested and detained foreign women on suspicion of prostitution crimes without screening them for indicators of sexual exploitation—sometimes for as long as four months—before deporting them for immigration violations.[12][5] The police have treated the women and girls as violators of immigration law but have taken little action against their traffickers.[40]
There is a need for greater rehabilitative assistance and protection services, including comprehensive counseling and medical reintegration of the victims.[5] Detained or imprisoned women have beaten by other inmates.[38]
The Chinese government maintains a wide network of shelters across the country, providing food, accommodation, and other services to Chinese citizens facing various kinds of challenges. The system, however, is inexperienced in supporting foreigners in need of help. Anecdotal evidence suggests that foreigner women escaping conditions of forced marriage, some pregnant,[6] are at times not granted access to shelters and their services. Specialist support services exist for children, including specialized shelters. Emergency shelters, physical and mental health services, education, job training, financial assistance, and family reunification are available for all groups.[43]
Females
Females are more vulnerable than males because of entrenched misogyny that causes men to view women and girls as inferior and commoditize them.[15] Traditional patriarchal structures reinforce gender inequality, especially in rural areas where females are oftentimes not afforded the same opportunities as males and are forced to submit to male authority. This inequality leaves women and girls increasingly marginalized and vulnerable to sex trafficking.
The one-child policy and preference for sons over daughters have led to a skewed sex ratio in which men outnumber women in China.[12] Consequently, there is an increased demand for trafficked prostitutes and wives in China. [44]
Children
Children have been targeted by perpetrators.[2][31] Those from rural areas and migrant students, as well as left-behind children whose parents have migrated to the cities and other countries, have been identified as a vulnerable population to sex trafficking.[45] Children who are illegally adopted are vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
People in poverty
Sex traffickers in China often abduct or purchase women and girls from families in poverty or facing financial crisis, particularly the rural poor, because the victims often do not have any political power and connections and lack education about sex trafficking laws, which enables the captors to not attract much attention or publicity.[30]
Migrants
The hukou household registration system in China has contributed to the vulnerability of internal migrants by limiting employment opportunities and reducing access to social services, particularly for Chinese victims returning from exploitation abroad.[5]
Disabled persons
Disabled persons, including those with mental illness or who are deaf and mute, have been trafficked into and out of China by perpetrators.[2] Traffickers target adults and children with disabilities whose parents have left them with relatives to migrate to the cities.[5]
Ethnic and religious minorities
Women and girls from minority groups are at an increased risk of sex trafficking because of population displacements and a lack of political representation, power, and protection.[27][46]
History
Vietnamese women and girls were mass trafficked from Vietnam to China during French colonial rule by Chinese and Vietnamese pirates and agencies. France Captain Louis de Grandmaison claimed that these Vietnamese women did not want to go back to Vietnam, and they had families in China and were better off in China. Vietnamese women were in demand because of a lower amount of Chinese women available in China, and along the borderlands of China there were many Chinese men who had no women and needed Vietnamese women. Vietnamese women in the Red River delta were taken to China by Chinese recruitment agencies, as well as Vietnamese women who were kidnapped from villages which were raided by Vietnamese and Chinese pirates. The Vietnamese women became wives, prostitutes, or slaves.[47][48]
Vietnamese women were viewed in China as "inured to hardship, resigned to their fate, and in addition of very gentle character" so they were wanted as concubines and servants in China, and the massive traffick of Tongkinese (North Vietnamese) women to China started in 1875. There was a massive demand for Vietnamese women in China.[49] Southern Chinese ports were the destination of the children and women who were kidnapped by Chinese pirates from the area around Haiphong in Vietnam.[50] Children and pretty women were taken by the pirates in their raids on Vietnamese villages.[51] A major center for human trafficking of the slaves was Hai Phong. The Vietnamese children and women were kidnapped and brought to China to become slaves by both Chinese and Vietnamese pirates.[52]
Mung, Meo, Thai, and Nung minority women in Tonkin's mountains were kidnapped by Vietnamese pirates and Chinese pirates to bring to China. The anti-French Can Vuong rebels were the source of the Vietnamese bandits, while former Taiping rebels were the source of the Chinese rebels. These Vietnamese and Chinese pirates fought against the French colonial military and ambushed French troops, receiving help from regular Chinese soldiers to fight against the French.[53] Chinese and Nung pirates fought against Meo.[54] The T'ai hated the Viet Minh and fought against them in 1947.[55] Nung were said to be fit for banditry and piracy.[56]
Brothels in Bangkok bought kidnapped Vietnamese women fleeing South Vietnam after the Vietnam war who were taken by pirates.[57]
Foreigners
Foreign women and girls from Russia[58],Vietnam,[59][16] Mongolia,[20] North Korea[60] Myanmar,[61] Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda[62] Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia,[63] Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia, and other countries have been trafficked into China for sexual exploitation.[44] They experience difficulties being rescued because they do not speak Chinese and have no identification documents.[64]
The United Nations Human Rights Council 'Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea' (February 2014) stated that a number of North Korean women in China were trafficked and sexually exploited.[6] North Korean women's customers (or "husbands") are mostly Chinese men and ethnic Korean-Chinese men.[65][66] Authorities continue to detain and deport North Korea sexually trafficked victims who may face severe punishment and/or death upon their repatriation.[2] The majority of North Korean refugees leaving the DPRK are women. The Chinese government's refusal to recognize these women as refugees denies them legal protection and may encourage the trafficking of North Korean women and girls within China. Many children born to Chinese fathers and North Korean mothers remain deprived of basic rights to education and other public services, owing to their lack of legal resident status in China, which constitute violations of the PRC Nationality Law and the convention on the Rights of the Child.[44]
Overseas Chinese
Chinese women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking in countries throughout the world. Some are deceived into prostitution or confined to private homes where they are raped.[5]
Many Chinese victims sex trafficked into the United States are forced to work in brothels disguised as massage parlors. The conditions in these illegal establishments are sometimes appalling. Money collected by operators is transferred to superiors in China at times.[3][67]
Chinese women and girls have been sex trafficked to cater to men involved with or working for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators.[29][68]
Chinese victims have been sex trafficked to businesses catering to people seeing the Southeast Asian Games and other sports events.[69]
Forced prostitution
Victims are coerced by perpetrators by imposing large travel fees, confiscating passports,[33][70] confining victims, or are physically and financially threatened to compel their engagement in commercial sex.[5] Victims are deceived by traffickers and brothel operators by answering ads for jobs as models,[71] waitresses, servers, cleaners, and more.[45] Some have been told they could study in universities and educational institutions at low costs only to be sold into prostitution.[45] Some are drugged[34][72] and abducted.[45][73] The brothels are often indirect sex establishments, such as beer gardens, massage parlors, salons, karaoke bars, retail spaces, and non-commercial sites.[74][46] Other locations include construction sites, remote mining and logging camps, and areas with high concentrations of Chinese migrant workers.[15]
Women and girls who are trafficked into brothels are raped by hundreds of men.[74] They are kept under strict surveillance.[36] It is not uncommon for them to be guarded and tied or locked up and never allowed to go outside.[75] Some are beaten and or contract sexually transmitted diseases. Others commit suicide.[76]
There are more males than females in China because of the one-child policy and preference. This may have led to an increase in the demand for prostitution.[44] China's business culture also involves frequenting entertainment venues, some of which have forced prostitutes.[45]
Cybersex trafficking
A number of sexually trafficked victims in China, including North Korean migrants, are deceived or abducted[77] and coerced[77] into cybersex slavery.[78] Cybersex organization's operators are ethnic Korean-Chinese and North Korean women's customers are Chinese men and South Korean men.[79][80] They are habitually subjected to penetrative vaginal and anal rape, groping, and forced masturbation live on camera in 'online rape dens.'[28] Gang rape occurs in these dens as well.[15] Victims have been locked up, deprived of sleep,[78] denied food, been forced to perform while sick, and contracted infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis.[24] They are forced to follow the orders or commands of the paying consumers.[78]
Forced marriages and pregnancies
Illicit brokers increasingly facilitate the forced and fraudulent marriage, or bride trafficking, of Chinese women and foreigners to men in China and from abroad.[81][5] These women are sexually exploited in the illegal marriages. The Chinese government's birth limitation policy and the cultural preference for sons have resulted in an uneven sex ratio, contributing substantially to the demand for brides from rural areas and outside of China.[2] Many brokers are connected to matchmaking businesses.[82]
Some female trafficking victims are raped so they become surrogate mothers and bear children.[2] There are testimonies that women and girls have also been injected with sperm.[83][84] Their children are kept by the captors, the paying husband, or sold to other families.[37] Some husbands let other men, including their relatives, rape their trafficked wife.[85] Some women and girls have been trafficked to entire families of men who are poor and pool their money together to buy one wife.[86] Some women become pregnant unintentionally while being forced prostitutes.[6]
Industries
Entertainment and tourism industries
China's entertainment and tourism industries have developed rapidly with the country's economic growth. Victims are trafficked into businesses, including restaurants, bars, casinos, and nightclubs, linked to these industries.[45][87]
Mining industry
Women and girls are trafficked to mining sector sites.[20]
Special administrative regions of China
Chinese mainlanders are sex trafficked into the special administrative regions of China. Women and girls within these administrative regions are also trafficked to other parts of the city or to mainland cities.
Hong Kong
Mainland Chinese women and girls are sex trafficked into Hong Kong.[88][89] They are forced into prostitution in brothels, homes, and businesses in the city.[88][90][91][92]
According to the Global Slavery Index, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China has a 'weak response' to modern slavery, including sexual slavery, relative to gross domestic product based on purchasing power parity.[43]
Macau
Mainland Chinese victims are sex trafficked into Macau.[93][94] They are sex slaves in brothels and hotel rooms near the casinos and other entertainment venues.
China–Mongolia border
Chinese and Mongolian women and girls are sex trafficked to and through the China–Mongolia border.[95] At the border and in the Gobi Desert are global mining sector and other heavy industry operations with large workforces of isolated men. These sites, including the ones in Tavan Tolgoi coal deposits, have been a focal point for prostitution and sex trafficking.[20]
Criminal organizations and perpetrators
Domestic and transnational criminal organizations operating in China are becoming more organized, professional, and diverse. Members of criminal organizations use fraudulent employment offers, threats, direct force, and kidnapping to trafficked victims into sexual exploitation and slavery. Some marriage brokers, matchmakers, mail-order bride service managers, and loan sharks obtain women for criminal organizations.[2] Traffickers frequently take advantage of debt bondage to control their victims. They also threaten families back home to ensure the victims continue to cooperate.[39]
Chinese government officials and businessmen, facilitated by criminal organizations, have been arrested for participating in forcible commercial sexual exploitation.[2] There are government officials who facilitate or are complicit in sex trafficking.[5][45]
Females perpetrators are sometimes victims of trafficking themselves and are coerced to abduct more women and girls for their captors.[96][27][46] Female traffickers can better conceal their identities to the police and win trust from victims more easily compared with their male counterparts.[16]
Family members, relatives, friends, classmates, colleagues, or acquaintances sometimes sell girls to sex traffickers.[12][30][76] [97] The girls' parents or the trafficker may take her to the hospital to get a virginity test.[74][41][98]
Some sex traffickers impersonate police officers to gain victims' trust.[99][46]
Perpetrators are motivated by monetary incentives.[86]
Online deception
Perpetrators in China use the internet, gaming sites, social media, WeChat, Telegram, and other messaging apps to lure victims.[100][101] Male traffickers often entice females with phony online dating relationships and persuade them to move to a different province or abroad, then subject them to sexual slavery.[39][46]
Unreported crimes
The scope of intra-provincial, inter-provincial, and international sex trafficking of women in China is not well understood because of data scarcity.[102] Data collection of sex trafficking crimes in China have been flawed, which has led to incidents not being reported. A criminologist in the People's Public Security University of China stated, “behind every reported sex abuse case, there might be six hidden cases unreported”.[45] Victims might be fearful and or ashamed to report a sex crime. Children and mentally disabled persons might not be aware that such illegal acts has been committed against them.[45] Some brothels with sex trafficked victims operate underground.[45]
Legal framework
Victims were legally entitled to request criminal prosecution and claim financial restitution through civil lawsuits against their traffickers.[43]
China has not signed, ratified, acceded to the convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery or Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery. It has for the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
Article 240 of the Chinese Criminal Code criminalized the “abducting and trafficking of women or children.” Article 244 criminalized the forcing of a person “to work by violence, threat or restriction of personal freedom” and recruiting, transporting, or otherwise assisting in forcing others to labor. Article 358 criminalized forced prostitution. Under the provisions of article 296 of the Criminal Code, a person who enslaves another or places him in a position without freedom, similar to slavery, shall be punished with imprisonment for not less than one and not more than seven years. Article 359 criminalized harboring prostitution or seducing or introducing others into prostitution.[5]
The Chinese government maintained insufficient law enforcement efforts of sex trafficking.[5] It has been recommended that China vigorously investigate, prosecute, and impose prison sentences on perpetrators of sex trafficking; update the legal framework concerning the criminalization of sex trafficking, including the facilitation of prostitution involving children younger than the age of 18; expand efforts to institute proactive, formal procedures to systematically identify trafficking victims throughout the country; train front-line officers on their implementation; cease penalization of victims for acts committed as a direct result of being subjected to sex trafficking; ensure authorities do not subject trafficking victims to detention, punishment, or forcible repatriation; increase the transparency of government efforts to combat trafficking and provide disaggregated data on investigations and prosecutions, victim identification, and service provision, including by continuing to share relevant data with international partners.[5]
Anti-sex trafficking mechanisms
China has a “National Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children.” The Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Supreme People's Court, and All China Women's Federation have issued various joint policies on prosecution, prevention, and victim protection. The Inter-Ministerial Joint Meeting Mechanism (IMJMM) holds annual and thematic meetings as well as information sharing on a monthly basis. Anti-sex trafficking campaigns have been disseminated through television, print media and online platforms. Numerous documentaries and animations have been produced and broadcast to raise awareness among the general public.[2]
Chinese police work in cooperation with consuls to rescue foreign victims in China.[103]
Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT) Task Force (2005), with UN-ACT as secretariat. Chinese law enforcement carries out hotspot policing conducted in high-risk areas and joint border operations conducted with law enforcement counterparts in Vietnam and Myanmar. A team of interpreters for Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) languages has been established to support cross-border case investigations.[2] Thailand offers bounties for the arrest of Chinese traffickers operating in its territory.[104]
An “Operational Guide for Anti-Trafficking Police” has been established and is currently used by police officers.[2]
Several projects have been initiated by the All China Women's Federation (ACWF) to prevent trafficking among migrant populations in various source and destination provinces.[2]
Shelters provide interim care to trafficking victims with managers and staff in most provinces having received training (Ministry of Civil Affairs). An operational guide to assist victims of trafficking has been developed and distributed to all shelters.[2]
Official and police training
Training for police, teachers, social workers, labor inspectors, immigration officials, shelter managers, marriage registration officials, and other government workers has taken place on basic legal frameworks surrounding sexual slavery and victim identification. In conjunction with an international organisation, authorities sponsored and participated in trainings on victim identification and assistance for consular officials and law enforcement, regulation of marriage migration, and interagency implementation of the national referral mechanism. The Ministry of Public Security promulgated written instructions to law enforcement officers throughout the country with the aim of clarifying procedures for identifying victims among individuals in prostitution and those who may be subjected to exploitation via forced or fraudulent marriage. The government reported funding training in rural areas for court officials and prosecutors; however, it did not provide detailed information on these efforts. In addition, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and judges attended trainings on trafficking organized by other countries and international organizations; when authorities participated in these trainings, the PRC sometimes provided speakers and venues, and funded lodging, transportation, and meals for some participants.The office to combat trafficking in persons developed and approved trafficking victim identification procedures and disseminated them to law enforcement officials throughout the country. The government acknowledged that victim identification procedures varied according to local officials' training and understanding of trafficking; this variation increased the risk that unidentified trafficking victims were detained and deported following arrest for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being subjected to human trafficking.[43]
Public education
Public education about sex crimes in China exists but is insufficient. Many Chinese children receive little information about sexual offences and have a weak awareness or capability to protect themselves from such offences.[105]
China's highest-rated television channel ran broadcasts raising awareness on trafficking. The government disseminates some anti-trafficking messages in train and bus stations and through media such as cell phones, television, and the internet. Through China's social media platforms, such as Sina Weibo, the Ministry of Public Security reported using its official microblog to raise awareness of trafficking and receive information from the public regarding suspected trafficking cases. In 2018, the Ministry of Public Security reportedly sent 350,000 police officers to public schools to educate children about the risks of exploitation. Article highlights announcement of rescued children on Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging platform, accompanied by photos of them. At the end of the article, tips and reminders are provided for readers on what to do if they suspect any instance of child trafficking or abduction. A link is also provided to the National Abduction and Family Search Platform, which acts as a directory for abducted and trafficked children.[106]
The two Women's Federations and the Publicity Department focus on raising awareness and provide assistance with victim support. They run annual campaigns that focus on school curricula, television ads, and transportation hubs, especially around the time of the Spring Festival.
Reporting
Government websites provide a list of relevant agencies and departments and their hotlines. Several of the most popular apps in China have the additional function of helping locate missing persons through localized push notifications. Scores of specialist apps for registering family members young and old or reporting suspected child trafficking have also been appearing in the country's app stores. The free, 24/7 dial 110 nationwide police calling system allows victims or witnesses to obtain assistance from the police.[106]
Government response problems
According to Human Rights Watch, Chinese law enforcement officers in certain jurisdictions make little effort to save sex trafficking victims.[37]
There has not been an increase in public reports of sexual slavery cases in recent years. The Ministry of Public Security has not reported the number of investigations initiated into possible trafficking cases.[106]
The reporting mechanisms (websites, hotline, etc.) do operate in multiple languages.[106]
Training for first responders of trafficking crimes is not delivered systematically and at regular intervals. Reports suggest that screening procedures exist, but it is unclear if these have been distributed to all first responders or concern both victim screening and identification. [106]
Corruption
Some government officials and police have been complicit in sex trafficking. Some police have demanded bribes in order to return victims to their families.[40] Chinese border guards have also been accused of collusion with traffickers.[107]
Government human rights violations
The Chinese government's human rights violations have hampered anti-sex trafficking initiatives.[25] Sustained attacks on organizations and lawyers have resulted in victims not being able to seek justice.[27]
Anti-trafficking Organizations
There are civil society organizations working to rescue women, but these organizations have limited resources.[41]
Christian organizations save sex trafficked victims in China.[108]
Agape International Missions[74] and Blue Dragon Children's Foundation save victims of sex trafficking in China.[109][110]
The Korea Future Initiative is a London-based organization that obtains evidence and publicizes violations of human rights, including the sex and cybersex trafficking of North Korean women and girls in China.[111]
References
- "Nearly Two-Thirds of Human Trafficking Victims Are from Asia". The Daily Signal. September 11, 2014.
- "China, The Trafficking Situation". United Nations Action for Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons (UN-ACT).
- "In Florida sex spas, Chinese human trafficking rings operated in plain sight". South China Morning Post. March 2, 2019.
- "2018 Trafficking in Persons Report: China". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
- "2018 Trafficking in Persons Report: China". United States Department of State.
- "For the women who escape to China from North Korea, a terrible fate awaits them". The Independent. October 4, 2017.
- "2.9 million trapped in modern-day slavery in China, 30 million worldwide". South China Morning Post. October 17, 2013.
- "Raped, beaten and sold in China: Vietnam's kidnapped young brides". Channel News Asia. August 3, 2019.
- "Vietnamese teen's escape from the China trafficking trade that sold her mother". ABC News. September 18, 2018.
- "Myanmar's trafficked brides". The ASEAN Post. March 31, 2019.
- "Sex Trafficking and China's One Child Policy". The Diplomat. November 6, 2014.
- "Give Us a Baby and We'll Let You Go: Trafficking of Kachin Brides from Myanmar to China". Human Rights Watch. March 21, 2019.
- "Sold, raped, enslaved: Human trafficking victims shared stories in 2019". VnExpress. December 24, 2019.
- Gannon, Kathy (December 20, 2016). "Sold to China as a bride, Pakistani woman came home on brink of death". SFGATE.
- "Oppressed, enslaved and brutalised: The women trafficked from North Korea into China's sex trade". The Telegraph. May 20, 2019.
- "Vietnam-China human trafficking a growing malady". New Europe. November 24, 2013.
- "China executes man who kept 6 women in dungeon as sex slaves". CNN. January 22, 2014.
- "Chinese man sentenced to death in sex slave murder case". Reuters. November 30, 2012.
- "Colombia to China Sex Trafficking Bust Illustrates Dynamics of Trade". InSight Crime. August 25, 2017.
- "Mongolia's prostitution zones, where women trade sex for fuel in sub-zero temperatures". The Telegraph. February 19, 2019.
- "Bride trafficking, a problem on China's belt and road". South China Morning Post.
- "Abused, raped: heart-wrenching stories of Pakistani brides trafficked to China". South China Morning Post. December 13, 2019.
- "7 Thai surrogates, 2 Chinese nationals arrested in illegal surrogacy raid in Bangkok". CNA. February 13, 2020.
- "After Fleeing North Korea, Women Get Trapped as Cybersex Slaves in China". The New York Times. September 13, 2019.
- "Why Beijing Fails to Fight Human Trafficking". Council on Foreign Relations.
- "Trafficking survivors are being failed the world over". Al Jazeera.
- "China's Bride Trafficking Problem". The Diplomat. October 30, 2019.
- "North Korea women in China trapped in sex trade". UPI. May 16, 2019.
- "No reply from Chinese Embassy on POGO sex trade — Hontiveros". Inquirer. March 4, 2019.
- "Myanmar and China's Bride Trafficking Problem". Inter Press Service. March 22, 2019.
- "China's Trafficked Brides". The Diplomat. July 19, 2017.
- "Compelled by Love: The Church in China Fights Human Trafficking, Part II". The Gosepl Herald Society. November 27, 2013.
- "POVERTY AND CONFLICT IN MYANMAR FUEL HUMAN TRAFFICKING". Caritas.
- "Vietnamese girls smuggled into China and sold as child brides". CNN World. April 19, 2016.
- "Vietnamese trafficking victims shared their stories". Vietnam Insider. December 25, 2019.
- "Vietnamese Trafficking Victim Reveals Heartbreaking Ordeal". VOA News. September 24, 2015.
- "A Shortage of Women in China Has Led to the Trafficking of 'Brides' From Myanmar, Says a Report". Time. March 21, 2019.
- Smith, Nicola; Farmer, Ben (May 20, 2019). "Oppressed, enslaved and brutalised: The women trafficked from North Korea into China's sex trade". The Telegraph.
- "Vietnam's Human Trafficking Problem Is Too Big to Ignore". The Diplomat. November 8, 2019.
- "Thousands of Myanmar women forced into marriages in China". DW News. July 12, 2018.
- "Interview: Why 'Brides' From Myanmar Are Trafficked to China". Human Rights Watch. March 21, 2019.
- "Trafficking Survivors Are Being Failed the World Over". Human Rights Watch. August 5, 2019.
- "China Country Data". Global Slavery Index.
- "Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2019 Annual Report—Executive Summary" (PDF). Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
- "Global Study on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism. Country-specific Report, China" (PDF). ECPAT International. 2015.
- "China is main destination for Vietnamese trafficking victims: official". VnExpress. August 24, 2018.
- Micheline Lessard (24 April 2015). Human Trafficking in Colonial Vietnam. Routledge. pp. 70–. ISBN 978-1-317-53622-2.
- Micheline Lessard (24 April 2015). Human Trafficking in Colonial Vietnam. Routledge. pp. 144–. ISBN 978-1-317-53622-2.
- Alain Gerard Marsot (1 January 1993). The Chinese Community in Vietnam Under the French. EmText. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-7734-1941-4.
- Douglas Porch (2010). The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force. Skyhorse Pub. pp. 227–. ISBN 978-1-61608-068-6.
- Cao Dương Phạm (1 January 1985). Vietnamese Peasants Under French Domination, 1861-1945. Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-8191-4715-8.
- K. W. Taylor (9 May 2013). A History of the Vietnamese. Cambridge University Press. pp. 461–. ISBN 978-0-521-87586-8.
- Douglas Porch (11 July 2013). Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War. Cambridge University Press. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-1-107-02738-1.
- John Colvin (1996). Volcano Under Snow: Vo Nguyen Giap. Quartet Books. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7043-7100-2.
- John Colvin (1996). Volcano Under Snow: Vo Nguyen Giap. Quartet Books. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7043-7100-2.
- Maurice Abadie (1 January 2001). Minorities of the Sino-Vietnamese Borderland: With Special Reference to Thai Tribes. White Lotus Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-974-7534-57-3.
- International Maritime Bureau of the ICC.; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1989). Piracy at sea. ICC Pub. p. 88. ISBN 978-92-842-1078-7.
- Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Report Submitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives and Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate by the Department of State in Accordance with Sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as Amended · Volume 1
- "Sold, raped, enslaved: Human trafficking victims shared stories in 2019". VnExpress International. December 24, 2019.
- Trafficking Of North Korean Women In China
- "In China, thousands of Myanmar women are forced into childbirth". South China Morning Post. December 7, 2018.
- "Human traffickers take the route from Africa to Asia | Asia | DW.DE | 07.03.2012". dw.de. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
- "Woman accused of human trafficking". Khmer Times. February 5, 2018.
- "Chinese police free more than 1,100 human trafficking victims after targeting Southeast Asian networks". South China Morning Post. June 21, 2019.
- Yoon, Yeosang; Park, Sungchul; Im, Sunhee (2013). "재중탈북자 현황 [Status of North Korean Defectors in China]". Database Center for North Korean Human Rights: 20–27.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- "제3국을 떠도는 탈북자들: 중국에 숨어사는 탈북자들". RFA.
- "Orchids of Asia case: $425K in cash, lots in $100 bills, seized by police". The Palm Beach Post. December 14, 2019.
- "'Probe Chinese group's sex trafficking activities'". SunStar Cebu. August 6, 2019.
- "SEA Games: foreign tourist surge to Philippines sees rising risk of sex trafficking". South China Morning Post. December 10, 2019.
- "Trafficking of Vietnamese women for sex and marriage expands across region: expert". Reuters. May 18, 2016.
- Moloney, Anastasia (September 8, 2020). "Colombia makes arrests in sex trafficking plot that lured women to China". Reuters.
- "Vietnamese woman trafficked to China returns home after 22 years". VnExpress. July 4, 2019.
- "Sold, raped, enslaved: Human trafficking victims shared stories in 2019". VnExpress. December 24, 2019.
- "Non-profit group, which helps sex-trafficking victims, seeks tie-ups with ethical business partners in Hong Kong". South China Morning Post. April 21, 2019.
- "Sold, raped, enslaved: Human trafficking victims shared stories in 2019". VnExpress. December 24, 2019.
- "From Vietnam, without love: the child brides of China". South China Morning Post. June 17, 2018.
- "North Korean women 'forced into sex slavery' in China - report". BBC News. May 20, 2019.
- "These North Korean defectors were sold into China as cybersex slaves. Then they escaped". CNN. June 10, 2019.
- "9세 여아에 성행위 강요…성노예 탈북여성 "고객은 韓 남성"". 중앙일보. Naver. 2019-09-19.
- "화상채팅으로 유린당하는 중 탈북여성". RFA. Retrieved 2014-11-13.
- "China's Bride Trafficking Problem". Human Rights Watch. October 31, 2019.
- Liu, Weidi; Qiu, Geping; Zhang, Sheldon X. (2020). "Easy Prey: Illicit Enterprising Activities and the Trafficking of Vietnamese Women in China". Asian Journal of Criminology: 1–17.
- "Trafficked: Three survivors of human trafficking share their stories". UN Women. July 29, 2019.
- "Women, children and babies: human trafficking to China is on the rise". AsiaNews. July 11, 2019.
- "Pakistani police target traffickers selling brides to China". AP News. June 17, 2019.
- "Pacific Links Foundation: The Battle Against Human Trafficking". Vietcetera. August 7, 2017.
- "Earnest bid to end sex trade". China Org. February 20, 2014.
- "New ways to help Hong Kong's human trafficking victims". CN Monitor. October 22, 2015.
- "Human trafficking in Hong Kong: hidden in plain sight". South China Morning Post Magazine. January 16, 2016.
- "Human trafficking in Hong Kong: hidden in plain sight". South China Morning Post. January 16, 2016.
- "Fed up with human trafficking, Hong Kong migrant workers hold vigil demanding justice". South China Morning Post. February 25, 2018.
- "Hong Kong must lead the fight against human trafficking, rather than just do the bare minimum". South China Morning Post. July 8, 2016.
- "Macau's ranking upgraded in US human trafficking report, Gov't dismisses 'untrue' conclusions". Macau Business. June 21, 2019.
- "Human trafficking is still a big problem in Macau, Hong Kong newspaper says". Plataforma. October 21, 2019.
- "Stolen from Mongolia for sex". PRI. July 22, 2009.
- "A Grim Trade: Trafficking Palaung Women to China". The Irrawaddy. June 14, 2011.
- "Child trafficking in China often starts with parents selling their own kids". Quartz. October 16, 2015.
- "1,807 human trafficking victims rescued in Thailand in 2019". New Straits Times. January 8, 2020.
- "80 percent of Vietnamese human trafficking victims end up in China". VnExpress International. August 1, 2019.
- "Washington County charges offer glimpse into the secret world of Chinese sex trafficking". Twin Cities Pioneer Press. March 1, 2020.
- "Vietnam wakes up to its human trafficking problem". The New Humanitarian. September 2, 2016.
- Xia, Yiwei; Zhou, Yisu; Du, Li; Cai, Tianji (2020). "Mapping Trafficking of Women in China: Evidence from Court Sentences". Journal of Contemporary China. 29 (122): 238–242.
- Kongkea, Buth Reaksmey (February 1, 2021). "20-year-old rescued from China after being trafficked for marriage". Khmer Times.
- Ashworth, Caitlin (February 5, 2021). "Thailand blocks natural borders following Myanmar coup, bounty for human traffickers increases". The Thaiger.
- "Global Study on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism. Country-specific Report, China" (PDF). ECPAT Intercriminalovernational. 2015.
- "China Country Data". Global Slavery Index. 2019.
- "Fleeing from North Korea to be sold in China as brides or prostitutes". AsiaNews. February 15, 2010.
- "Vietnam's "modern sex slaves" sold in China as prostitutes or brides". AsiaNews. February 3, 2015.
- Binh, Hai (December 25, 2020). "Man arrested for selling teenage girl to China". VnExpress.
- Migrant Hero: Michael Brosowski June 26, 2015 International Organization for Migration Retrieved May 26, 2016
- "China: Thousands of North Korean women forced into prostitution: report". Deutsche Welle. May 20, 2019.