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Alice Yan

Police in southeastern China are investigating a case involving a young girl who was married at the age of 13 and had a baby the next year.
The girl, surnamed Zhang, is a resident of Ganyu District of Lianyungang, Jiangsu, and was born in April 2006, according to her identity card. In October, 2019, Zhang married a 23-year-old man in the same city. In May last year, she gave birth to a baby boy, news portal Thepaper reported.
The birth certificate of the baby showed its mother was aged 14 years old while his father was 23 years old, the report said. The document showed that the girl was over 40 weeks pregnant when her son was born.
At the end of last year the girl quarreled with her husband and left his family before returning to her father’s home.
Her husband, identified only by his surname Huang, found that she married again in February..
He also discovered that he is not the biological father of the boy after a DNA test.
Her father and her first husband were questioned by police at the end of April. The police station in the area where Huang’s home is located said it is looking into the case.

The girl’s father told Thepaper last week that he is “not sure of” his daughter’s age.
“I don’t know that exactly. Her residency registration document is not in my house right now,” the man, whose name was not released, was quoted as saying.
He accepted 66,000 yuan (US$10,203) as bride gifts from Huang’s family before giving agreeing to the marriage.
Before the girl’s second marriage, the father accepted 88,000 yuan (US$13,605), the report said.
The girl’s first husband’s uncle named Huang Gui, and Zhu Hong, who is the girl’s aunt, both received 3,000 yuan (US$463) respectively for their matchmaking roles in the first marriage.
Huang Gui said Zhu told him that the girl was 16 years old in 2019.
Zhu said it is not clear to her whether the girl was truly 16 or not.
“I just wanted to find a good guy for her,” she was quoted as saying. “As her aunt, I hope she lives happily. Her own home is so poor that it has nothing to eat.”
According to China’s laws, men can get married from the age of 22, while for women the age is 20.
The sexual consent age on the mainland is 14 years old. China’s Criminal Law stipulates that people having sex with juveniles younger than 14 will be charged with rape.
The identity of the baby’s father is unknown.
An official from the women’s federation in Lianyungang said they will help the girl as much as they can.
“We are still verifying the facts. We have to check with the girl herself, her relatives and folks in her village,” the official, whose name was not given in the report, told Thepaper.
She said it will be difficult to find a solution as the case is so complicated.
“It’s our first time to deal with the case in which a minor had a baby. Another problem is that the baby’s guardian is not his biological father.
“We are not sure if this man is entitled to adopt the baby. We need to check laws and regulations,” said the official.


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Girl had baby after first marriage but it was later revealed he is not the father, whose identity is unconfirmed
The girl’s father and an aunt arranged the marriages in exchange for cash payments



Police in China are seeking answers after discovering a girl was twice sold for marriage by her father to two different older men and had a baby by an unknown man.


Children in China

Police in China investigating case of 13-year-old child bride who had a baby after being sold for marriage to a 23-year-old man by her father

Girl had baby after first marriage but it was later revealed he is not the father, whose identity is unconfirmed The girl’s father and an aunt arranged the marriages in exchange for cash payments

Girl had baby after first marriage but it was later revealed he is not the father, whose identity is unconfirmed

The girl’s father and an aunt arranged the marriages in exchange for cash payments