Chained Woman in China Was Sold as a Bride Twice

February 23, 2022

(Wall Street Journal) – Responding to online anger set off by footage of a woman in chains, authorities in eastern China said they found that human traffickers had sold the woman in the late 1990s, not to one, but two prospective husbands. For almost a month, views of posts about the chained woman have topped billions a day on China’s internet, rivaling interest in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and forcing attention on a practice the country has long tried to stamp out: the trafficking of women as brides. The emergence in January of the video clip, which shows the woman, a mother of eight, chained in a shed without a door, quickly led to speculation online that she was treated so poorly because she was a “bought wife.” (Read More)