In mid-August, the Southern District of New York Federal Prosecutor’s Office released a startling indictment: 11 individuals were accused of arranging over a thousand sham marriages in the past decade to help Chinese citizens apply for U.S. green cards.
Every aspect of the scam was meticulously planned – from the witnesses, lawyers, wedding arrangements, bridal photography, to fabricating “evidence of shared life,” each had a designated person in charge. Chinese citizens involved in these fake marriages had to pay up to a maximum of $100,000.
Prosecutors say this is one of the largest marriage fraud cases in U.S. history.
At the same time, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs also released a set of figures: in the first half of this year, the number of registered marriages across China dropped to 3.275 million pairs, hitting a historic low.
On one hand, there are individuals willing to pay $100,000, risking imprisonment, to obtain a marriage certificate in the United States; on the other hand, despite various subsidies and incentives introduced by the Chinese Communist Party, young people are becoming increasingly reluctant to get married.
Today, let’s delve into what lies behind these two phenomena and explore what is really happening in the institution of marriage.
Subscribe to the YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E%E5%A4%A7%E8%A6%96%E9%87%8E