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Sex trafficking in China is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the People's Republic of China. It is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.[1]
Sex trafficking victims in the country are from all ethnic groups in China and foreigners. Chinese citizens have been sex trafficked to the various provinces of China, as well as other countries and different continents.[2] Illegal organizations often lure Chinese women abroad under the guise of legitimate work in other countries. Once these women arrive in that country, they are forced into prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation. Most of the women trafficked from China to Thailand and Malaysia are from ethnic minorities like the Dai ethnicity from areas like the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province and they are trafficked by men of their own ethnicity.[3][4][5][6][7][8] The Dai people are related to Thai people. Chinese prostitutes are trafficked overseas, especially in places where there is demand from Chinese male laborers and construction workers.[9] They have been detected in overseas Chinese expatriate communities. China's internal migrant population, in the hundreds of millions, is particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking.[10] Sex trafficked victims are abducted[11] or deceived and forced into prostitution, marriages,[12] and or pregnancies.[1] They are threatened,[13][14] physically and psychologically harmed.[15][16][17][18] They contract sexually transmitted diseases from rapes, and abuses such as starvation are common. Some women and girls die from the poor conditions in captivity[19] or are tortured[20][21] or murdered.[22][23] Foreign women and children mostly from Burma, Mongolia, North Korea, Russia, and Vietnam are trafficked to China for forced labor, marriage, and prostitution.[24] Most of them are from vulnerable communities.[25] Women and girls from northern Myanmar to China are sold from about $3,000 to $13,000 to Chinese families struggling to find brides for their sons.[26] Experts relate China's serious sex trafficking with the country's one-child policy. They argue that the imbalance in the ratio of male to female births and the scarcity of women resulting from the policy has greatly contributed to the phenomenon of trafficking in women as brides.[2]
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 facilitated criminal organizations and gangs. Some government officials and workers, as well as foreigners, have profited from sex trafficking in China.[10] Rising incomes in China have spurred increased consumption of many services, both licit and illicit.[27] It has occurred in businesses linked to China's entertainment and tourism industries, as well as heavy industries and the mining sector.[28] Some reporters suggest that the Belt and Road Initiative and globalization have led to an increase in sex trafficking in China.[29][30] Chinese sex traffickers operate throughout the world.[31] Cybersex trafficking is a growing problem in 21st century China.[32] 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,[12] the fact that only a small minority of cases are reported to the authorities, and other factors.[1][17] 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.[1] 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,[21] language barriers of foreign victims, political dynamics, corruption, and apathy.[33][34][35][36] Some Chinese police and officials, as well as overseas embassies and diplomatic missions,[37] have been accused of negligence concerning counter-sex trafficking efforts and concern for victims.[38][27][39][17] Available statistics indicate that China needs to devote greater resources and implement better policies and strategies designed to reduce sex trafficking in the country.[33] It is difficult for trading partners of China to criticize the country's inadequate anti-sex trafficking efforts because of fears of tensions.[35] 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.[33][35]