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Chinese police shot dead one Vietnamese man and arrested two more during a raid on a human trafficking ring last weekend in southern China.
Thao Seo Chung, 24, from the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai, who was wanted by Vietnamese authorities for alleged involvement in human trafficking, was spotted during the raid in the early hours last Saturday.
Chung was said to have "fiercely resisted" arrest, forcing the Chinese police to kill him on the spot. Chinese police also arrested two other suspects and handed them over, together with Chung's body, to their Vietnamese counterparts in Lao Cai on Tuesday.
In 2016, Chung and his accomplice Sung Seo Vang, 20, took a girl with whom Vang had faked a relationship across the border and sold her for 15,000CNY ($2,170), based on police reports.
On March 9, Lao Cai police charged Chung with human trafficking and issued an arrest warrant for him, but he was able to evade capture. Four days later, Vang was arrested while trying to escape to China.
Authorities said that Chung crossed into China from where he contacted other traffickers who were "hunting" for girls in Vietnam's northern provinces of Dien Bien and Yen Bai to sell them in China as brides or prostitutes. Their trafficking ring was later busted by Chinese police.
Police are coordinating to track down the remaining suspects and rescue the victims.
In February, China's police rescued 32 women trafficked from Vietnam and busted a human trafficking ring after spending more than a year following a suspected victim. A total of 75 suspects were arrested.
Last year 1,128 people in Vietnam fell victim to human trafficking, up 13 percent from 2015, based on Vietnamese government reports. Police have only managed to rescue around half of them.
They were sold to men seeking wives in China, Malaysia and South Korea, or just to bear children or work as prostitutes in these countries.
