A Chinese woman was recently sentenced to prison for kidnapping an 11-year-old girl whom she planned to raise into the perfect wife for her 27-year-old son.

The woman surnamed Yang met the underaged girl on February 13, 2023, while visiting a village in Liupanshui City in the southwestern province of Guizhou. Convinced that she would make a great bride for her much older son, she asked the girl’s parents if they would allow her to come back with her to Qujing City, Yunnan province. The girl’s father refused the proposal, but that only made the woman go ahead with her backup plan. She conspired with her 27-year-old son to kidnap the girl, and on February 14 they waited until the target was home alone and abducted her.

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Just six days after kidnapping the 11-year-old girl and driving her to her home in Yunnan, Yang was arrested, and her son turned himself in four days later. On December 15, the pair were sentenced to prison – two years for Yang and seven months for her son – for child abduction, and even though they appealed the court’s decision, an Appeals Court maintained the initial sentence last month.

The case and the sentence issued by the court caused general outrage on Chinese social media, with the vast majority of comments claiming that the mother and son duo got off too easy for their crime.

“I don’t understand why sentences for child traffickers are still so lenient. This is the cause of the crime continuing. The profits outweigh the costs,” one person wrote.

Photo: Jose P. Ortiz/Unsplash

“Seven months? Unbelievable. Has the cost of child trafficking become so low now? This is practically encouraging crime,” another outraged individual commented.

Although some also commented on the age difference between the abducted girl and her suitor, it’s worth pointing out that China has an ancient tradition of child brides, where pre-teen girls are adopted by families to be raised as future brides for their sons. The practice was banned in 1950, but it reportedly continues in rural areas.