Police to target websites touting foreign brides

Police will take action against websites that offer "group-purchase brides" from Southeast Asian countries, as they are actually involved in human trafficking.

"In recent days, some cross-border marriage brokerages or websites have been publishing tempting advertisements to introduce Vietnamese brides for cross-border marriages, but most of these involve kidnappings," said Wang Ying, deputy director of the office that combats human trafficking at the ministry's criminal investigation bureau.

In China, where sons are usually preferred, the ratio of boys and girls is unbalanced, which has resulted in a huge group of bachelors. For some single men in rural areas, the cost of marrying a Chinese woman is so high that marriage to a foreign wife is a viable solution.