{"id":535133,"date":"2026-07-20T12:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/535133\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T12:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:34:17","slug":"how-tongan-women-trapped-by-marriage-scheme-in-china-were-rescued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/535133\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tongan women trapped by marriage scheme in China were rescued"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tongans are being warned about online marriage schemes which have resulted in several young women being rescued from dire conditions in China.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, 1News revealed<\/a> how several women had been lured to China with promises of a wealthy marriage match along with support for family back home.<\/p>\n

In the second part of this two-part investigation, 1News and TVNZ\u2019s Tangata Pasifika looked at how the women were able to escape with help from Tongans living around the world.<\/p>\n

Last August, Mele* was contacted on Facebook messenger by a Tongan living in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe told me one of her friends in China was a rich man and would be a good husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mele said the person said they would pay for her clothes, ticket and \u201cwhatever I want, all I need\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the end, her older, suspicious sister convinced her not to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a lucky girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mele comes from a loving family who told 1News they were feeling so relieved she didn\u2019t go to China like the other girls did, and said they don\u2019t want this happening to anyone else.<\/p>\n

Four other women who fled China have not been so lucky.<\/p>\n

Two of them have told 1News they were mistreated by their new husbands and families.<\/p>\n

They said their passports were confiscated, there was violence and they were locked in their rooms, deprived of food.<\/p>\n

Tapenisa Mahe, a Chinese resident, was one of the people who helped the women escape.<\/p>\n

She spoke to the two women who were running the arranged marriage scheme \u2013 a fellow Tongan living in China, and a Chinese with business interests in the kingdom.<\/p>\n

\"Tapenisa<\/p>\n

Tapenisa Mahe helped the Tongan women escape. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like they have no conscience,\u201d Mahe said.<\/p>\n

In one video, one of the victims can be seen telling the two women who lured who over to China she was desperately unhappy.<\/p>\n

They told her she had to pay for her own ticket home. Her US-based aunt then went live on Facebook, highlighting the plight of the young woman.<\/p>\n

Money poured in from around the world<\/p>\n

Tongans around the world then donated money to help them get out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful my prayers were answered by angels to fundraise for my ticket because my family couldn\u2019t afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chinese Embassy in Tonga has described this situation as a transnational marriage dispute.<\/p>\n

The Tonga police are investigating, and the Tonga Women and Children Crisis Centre is supporting the victims.<\/p>\n

\"Ofa<\/p>\n

Ofa Guttenbeil Likiliki, from Tonga’s Women and Children Crisis Centre. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Tonga Women and Children Crisis Centre director Ofa Guttenbeil Likiliki said: “We need to raise awareness amongst our communities about what could happen and also to be cautious of opportunities that are presented to particularly young women.” <\/p>\n

1News has approached one of those involved in the scheme for comment, but there has been no response.<\/p>\n

However, contacts in China said the two matchmakers don’t believe they have done anything wrong, and deny the allegations the young women have made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tongans are being warned about online marriage schemes which have resulted in several young women being rescued from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2300,42,43,6430,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-535133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-asia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-pacific-islands","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}