Vietnamese jailed for selling lover to Chinese man

By Phuong Linh   November 23, 2021 | 04:41 pm PT
Vietnamese jailed for selling lover to Chinese man
Cut Van Xuc (L) and Lu Van Dung at the court in Nghe An Province for human trafficking, November 23, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Phuong Linh
A court in central Vietnam sentenced a man to seven years in jail for tricking and selling his partner to China in 2014.

Cut Van Xuc, 30, was found guilty of human trafficking Tuesday by the Nghe An People’s Court.

According to the verdict, Man*, a native of Nghe An's Ky Son District, had developed a relationship with Xuc, a divorced man. Later, she agreed to go live with Xuc at his home in Huu Kiem Commune.

In mid-2014, Lu Van Dung, 38, who also lives in Huu Kiem, recommended that Man is sold to China for marriage to men there.

If the transaction succeeded, they could get VND10 million ($440) and split it, Dung said. Xuc agreed.

Xuc then convinced Man to travel to China to work, saying she could earn more in the neighboring country. Man believed him.

Xuc and Dung then handed Man over to a woman named Lu Thi Niem, 36.

Niem smuggled Man into China and sold her to a man there for VND234 million ($10,300).

She then returned to Vietnam and gave Xuc VND30 million as "a fee for the victim’s family."

Xuc spent most of the money and gave Dung only VND2 million.

When Man’s father came looking for her, Niem gave the family VND50 million, and it was accepted.

After six years in China, Man escaped and returned to Vietnam.

She reported the story to the police. Whether or not she bore a child for her Chinese husband was not mentioned.

Xuc and Dung admitted to their crime, but Niem remains at large and is wanted by the police.

The court sentenced Dung to four years in jail.

According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, around 40 million men in China needed to look abroad for a wife, as of 2020. This situation has resulted from China’s former one-child policy, which saw families abort female fetuses for decades.

Hundreds of thousands of women from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar have been smuggled or taken to China to wed local men, activists say. Some end up happily married, but many others suffer violence and forced labor.

*The name has been changed to protect the victim’s identity.

 
 
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