3 couples put in jail for playing “husband-and-wife exchange”

3 couples traveled to Sanya, Hainan Island for holidays and played “Wife and husband exchange”. They were arrested on the third day in the island.

Mr. Zhu and Mrs. Niu, are living in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with good jobs and high salaries.

Their first son is now in college and they have no common interests, so the relationship becomes boring. One day, Zhu came across and joined a group named “Husbands and wives make friends to travel” on social media.

Zhu’s initial purpose was to travel with his wife to renew their romance. After joining the group, he recognized other husbands and wives all shared a purpose which is to exchange husbands and wives.

On a vacation in late May, they traveled with 2 other couples about their age, 40, to Sanya. There, they went sight-seeing in the day while exchanging husbands and wives in the night. On the third day, the police out of nowhere broke in to check.

When being taken to the station, all 6 defended that their acts couldn’t be convicted. In the latest trial, they each admitted one year in prison for “Organized group fo.rn.nic.ation”.

According to the criminal law of China, the fo.rn.nic.ation prohibition was introduced to protect and maintain family morality and core values.

This is not the first “husband and wife exchange” case ever seen in Chinese court history. In 2010, Ma Xiaohai, a maths professor at Nanjing Southeast University, was convicted before the Qinhuai court, Nanjing, for Organizing group fo.rn.nic.ation for 35 times from mid-2007 to 8/2009.

Since 2007, affected by wife-sharing trends from other countries, Ma had created and managed a group to connect people of the same interests from all over China.

Among these members, there were housewives, university professor, and even businessmen. Ma Xiaohai, as administrator, provided 3 rules of the group: No organizing outdoor meetings; Those who uploaded photos of group members playing will be banned from group; No political discussions. The only group’s topic is around ad.ult.er.y.

Ma Xiaohai was later put in jail for 3.5 years for going against social morality.