A man in central China has married his mentally disabled teenage daughter three times to three different men for money between 2018 and 2021.
The father, surnamed Xie from Lianyuan Hunan Province, sold his daughter Tingting to receive dowry payments. He claimed his daughter was in her 20s, although she was born in January 2005.
Tingting first became engaged to a man in 2018 when she was under 14. In 2019 she was engaged to a man named Chen in his 30s. She had just turned 14, although Xie kept her real age a secret. The matchmaker who brought the two together explained that she’s “18 years old and young and fertile” and “don’t even know that one plus one equals two.”
When Chen Tingting asked for her ID card to open an account at the bank, he found that she was only 16 years old. However, he and his family were unperturbed as the two had been married for more than two years at the time.
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“She was young and fertile, which is hard to find in rural areas,” Chen said, per the South China Morning Post.
Xie received more than 90,000 yuan (about US$13,328) from Chen’s family. He also collected tens of thousands of yuan from the other two men.
When the Chen family found out that Xie had sold his daughter to a third family, they asked for her money back. Xie refused to return the money.
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When the police arrested Xie in March, they found that he had spent all the money. The Lianyuan City Public Security Bureau announced on August 2 that the investigation was over. The case has now been referred to prosecutors, who will decide whether to charge Xie with fraud.
Xie’s wife, who also has an intellectual disability, was taken to a nursing home in Lianyuan City Center, while Tingting was taken to the Lianyuan City Social Welfare Institute.
The story goes on
Weibo users expressed outrage and condemned the father.
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“[He’s] charged with alleged fraud [but] Assaulting girls and ‘human trafficking’ aren’t illegal?” wrote one user.
“There is no more crime here [just] Fraud crimes,” commented another user.
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Featured image: Weibo