Some foreigners find that their Chinese partners are hiding dark secrets such as bigamy from them. Photo: Li Hao/ GT

After 4 years of setting up a life with the women he loved and having a 1-year-old son together, American Matt Garner found out his Chinese partner had been married to another man the whole time.

"A guy came to me in March this year and told me that the mother of my child is actually his wife. The two of them had been married and previously lived together for seven years in his hometown," recalled Garner, who lives in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Although having never obtained a marriage license, Garner and his Chinese partner surnamed Lin, had been living together as a family with their son.

"Lin's behavior is a crime of bigamy," said Song Duanli, a lawyer from Gaoxing Law Firm in Jinan, Shandong Province. Bigamy is the illegal act of being married to more than one person at once.

Although they never registered for marriage, Lin maintained a de facto marriage relationship with Garner, living together as husband and wife without telling him that she had already been married. This falls into factual bigamy as opposed to the traditional definition of bigamy, which requires a person to be registered for marriage with two different people, explained Song.

The act of bigamy is considered illegal in China with severe punishments for violators. According to article 258 of the Chinese Criminal Law, anyone who commits bigamy in China can be sentenced to imprisonment or detention of no more than two years.

According to the report of ifeng.com in September this year, a woman named Li Xue was arrested for bigamy after it was discovered that she had married three men at once. She married two of the men using her real ID and a fake ID respectively, and maintained a factual marriage with the third person without registration. This incident brought to light the number of bigamy cases in Chinese society.

According to Song, cases involving foreigners who fall for the bigamy trap are common in China. "Every year, there are around 10 foreigners who contact our law firm because they find out their Chinese partner is already married," said Song.

Song states that a lack of knowledge of a Chinese partner's background leads unassuming foreign men into these situations.

"Part of me blames myself for this," admits Garner. "I should have known something wasn't right."

During the 4 years of their relationship, Lin never once brought Garner back to her hometown to meet her family. "And she said that as long as we were together, we didn't need that piece of paper (the marriage license)," he said.

The reasons for Chinese women committing bigamy and deceiving a foreign man can vary, but Song states that financial gain and the opportunity to emigrate abroad are the most common.

So how can foreigners become more careful in avoiding such married partners? One way is through the online marriage registration system. Since 2012, when couples go to civil affairs bureau for marriage registration, the system will show whether they are already married or not, said Song.

"There are some people who use fake IDs to register for marriages, in which case, you can go to the website of National Citizen Identify Information Center to verify their identity," added Song.

For those foreigners who don't have a marriage license in China, but suspect their Chinese partner is already married, Song suggested an alternative approach. Foreigners can entrust a Chinese lawyer to go to the civil affairs department in their Chinese partner's place of permanent residential registration, to get their Chinese partner's marriage information.

Sun Hao, a marriage consultant, suggested that bigamy can be avoided at the beginning of a relationship.

"The key is transparency in a relationship," Sun said, adding that marriage is not only the combination of two people, but also their families and friends. "Cross-cultural couples need to make great effort to know each other's family and friends, despite the language and cultural barriers."

"Couples also need to be open about their financial affairs, considering a large number of bigamy cases are motivated by money," added Sun.

Such measures can help foreigners avoid entering into tangled relationships such as Garner's, which are destined to end badly and in heartbreak.

"Although she divorced her first husband after I found out because [she said] there was no love between them," said Garner, "it is still a gut wrenching."