China Intensifies Crackdown on Excessive ‘Bride Prices’

China’s Supreme People’s Court has issued a fresh warning against the practice of demanding excessive betrothal gifts, intensifying a state campaign to curb costly wedding customs that authorities say are destabilizing families and imposing crushing financial burdens.

In a press briefing Monday, the high court reiterated the legal principle prohibiting the “exaction of property through marriage.” The move addresses the traditional custom of caili — cash or assets paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s — which has spiraled into bidding wars in some regions, creating a barrier to marriage in a country struggling with demographic decline.