ISLAMABAD: In recent weeks, Pakistan has been rocked by charges that at least 150 women were brought to China under the false pretense of marriage and instead forced into prostitution or made to work in bars and clubs.

Investigators have cracked down on brokers said to have arranged the marriages, arresting two dozen Chinese citizens and several Pakistanis and charging them with human trafficking.

In other cases, Chinese men forged documents to show prospective brides they were Muslim.

The allegations are a disturbing aspect of China’s growing presence in Pakistan, particularly with Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project expanding into the country.

In addition, China has one of the world’s most skewed gender ratios, with 106.3 men for every 100 women as of 2017 — an imbalance created by the country’s one-child policy, which ended in 2015, and a preference for boys.

Now that those boys have reached marriage age, the demand for foreign brides has increased.

– The New York Times