Sexual Imbalance and the Marriage Squeeze (part five)
Official figures indicate that 88,000 women and children were kidnapped and sold into marriage or slavery between 1991 and 1996, although the real number is probably higher. Typically, gangsters arrive in a town and head straight for the marketplace where they lure young women with attractive- sounding offers of jobs in the city. Once in their hands, the women are shipped off to poor rural areas, where they are sold for between $350 and $750. Buyers’ families and friends in tight- Recognizing the problem, the government metes out swift and severe punishment to flesh merchants when it can find them. In the northern city of Taiyuan a trial of six kidnappers and their seven accomplices was watched By 10,000 people. The court quickly convicted the six kidnappers, sentenced them to a fine of $2,400, and then shot them. The accomplices were fined $1,200 and sentenced to life in prison. The problem is that many gangsters escape apprehension, and indeed in some places local police have done little to fight kidnapping, perhaps because they are paid off, perhaps because they are reluctant to antagonize neighbors, and perhaps because, in an ironic way, they are community spirited. Especially in poor rural areas, a shortage of marriageable women is a community problem because it threatens the continuity and cohesion of local society.