A government policy of one child per couple, along with a cultural preference for boy children, has led to an alarming gender gap in the People’s Republic of China:
Chinese government planners have long known that the urge of couples to have sons was skewing the gender balance of the population. But the study, by two Chinese university professors and a London researcher, provides some of the first hard data on the extent of the disparity and the factors contributing to it.
In 2005 , they found, births of boys in China exceeded births of girls by more than 1.1 million. There were 120 boys born for every 100 girls.
This disparity seems to surpass that of any other country, they said — a finding, they wrote, that was perhaps unsurprising in light of China’s one-child policy.
They attributed the imbalance almost entirely to couples’ decisions to abort female fetuses.
The trend toward more male than female children intensified steadily after 1986, they said, as ultrasound tests and abortion became more available. “Sex-selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males,” the paper said.
The researchers, who analyzed data from a 2005 census, said the disparity was widest among children ages 1 to 4, a sign that the greatest imbalances among the adult population lie ahead.
No matter what policy changes occur in the future, China seems destined to raise a generation of over 30 million restless young men who will never experience the civilizing influences of domestication and long-term partnership. If history is any judge, the competition for mates will probably hinge upon economic factors, as scarce brides seek grooms best able to provide for them and their offspring. The social consequences for the country’s stability could be enormous.
What will China do with 32 million unmarriageable males?
Oh.
I’m sure they’ll think of something.
for a few years i’ve thought we should open our borders to say… university graduates from China from my experience they would make very productive citizens…
BS to opening the borders to any more Chinese. Very many of them tend to be spies looking for whatever information they can send home – industrial information. I’d suggest having them talk to the Japanese scientists inventing those “lifelike” robots – maybe they can get them to design faces that are acceptable to their surplus males.
“I’m sure they’ll think of something.”
Won’t they though? (:
30 million unmarried males and a large military.
I wonder what China’s policy is concerning gays in the military?
Even the Chinese would find it difficult to start a war that causes 32 million military casualties w/o turning large parts of their country into glowing craters.
Re: lv4921391 @ 1
Didn’t realize this response was sent — at least I didn’t think it was. My apolgies!
The response was to be that China has sent thousands of college graduates to our shores. Silicon Valley is absolutely crammed with them.
I have recently discovered, first hand, that many of these “imported workers” have been retained by employers, while the home grown variety has been cast off.
These H1B visa workers sure are a bargain.
The issue with H-1B’s is not pay, but loyalty. Terminated visa holders are liable to deportation, or at least having their green card process reset to time zero with a new job. Given the high turnover rate in the Valley, young lads from the old civilizations form a stable bullpen for a design team.
The real scam is not H-1B, but H-3 (training visa) — people are shipped here to work for a pittance, and rarely have a chance to become Americans, all while paying Social Security taxes.
There are always mail order brides….the DPRK isn’t far and the women would be thrilled to get out of there.
i heard about a book, maybe two years ago, that discussed this very symptom. Outcome: Just as Lex shows in the picture.
The book’s author (radio talk show) went on to put this into the context of recorded history: Countries with an abundance of males without the comfort of women go on crop stomping escapades in the neighboring countries.
Since The One is no student of history, I suspect this “distracting” fact, supported by not watching the news where the Chinese are puts their money, not in banks and welfare payments, but into the military expansion, will be blindsided by the most likely historical outcome.
But I suspect, it shall be GWB’s fault, when it happens.
Liz , you beat me to the mail order bride comment. But from what I have read they already have a thriving market in North Korean women being trafficked in the northern provinces.
Why is it that every army aiming for a modicum of legitimacy on the world stage thinks that covering their uniforms in gold kitsch makes them look better?
Seriously: look at all the scrambled eggs . . .
It’s the new “rich” look…favored by Hollywood leftists….so as they don’t look…you know…”aggressive,” just “pretty” and what pretty person would support violence?
Yeah, they could be Navy officers.
Usin’ bus drivers will never be accused of guilding the lilly, that’s for sure….
Unless, of course, one is thinking of AFA uniforms (Hollywood costume designed all the way) or the officer’s mess dress…
Their uniforms are all so impeccably tailored – I wonder who they find to do that for them?
/not sterotypin’
//just sayin’
///yay, slashies!
About a year ago the idea that China will take over eastern Russia and all the babushkas will marry Chinese men (because their Russian men are dead from alcohol) was posited…
That and the build up of the Chinese military seem the only viable outcomes for the gender disparity.
Sign to be in Beijing soon – “Head north, young man.”
Yeah, Steveegg, lots of empty open spaces up there in Siberia. And Russia’s Great White Russian population is shrinking–not reproducing–it’s only the Muslims in the ‘stans.
And it’s not like there haven’t been plenty of border incidents
along that border in the past…
Nope. India has a similar problem. Don’t be surprised if they wind up fighting.
I think China will probably have gay marriage laws in place before too long.
Late hits–I have been traveling in a land unmarred by children, Northern Italy. Steyn discusses this surplus of Chinese males, and corollary surplus of Russian females, but makes no predictions. Given the antipathy between the two regimes and the tendency for the surplus to flow westward, I don’t see a babushka bride service in the near term. However, it took nearly all the combat-capable units of the Russian military to beat up on Georgia last year. Short of nukes, Russia could not withstand a Chinese invasion. Nor is it forgettable that 30% of Russia’s army is Muslim.
As to bringing in Chinese workers, to what end? Do we have a surplus of brides on hand? And from my sideline work in counter-intelligence, I can tell you that Chinese workers, even second generation, are a mile-wide funnel for stolen technology back to China. While in many cases it might (emphasis on “might”) be good if that information was legitimately shared, it is nothing more than theft and a transfer of our wealth and skills, hard won here and which the Chinese cannot otherwise create by themselves, to economic and military rivals. And yet there are some on this board who have the belief that our technological edge will always guarantee us victory over the Islamic threat, yet rashly advocate surrendering that advantage either through unhindered immigration into this nation or unhindered technology transfers.
One benefit of living where I live, in the shadow of ancient Rome, are the daily reminders of the Roman Republic collapsing into the Roman Empire, and through bread and circuses and untrammeled immigration, collapsing entirely. It is well worth reading (as I’m sure VX has been doing) the writings of our founding generation, Federalist and anti-Federalist alike, about the dangers that threaten Republics, lessons drawn from the careful study of history which every educated person undertook in those days, and then to look about us now. The American Republic is in dire straits, beset on all fronts, in ways foreseen by so many of that founding generation. This is nothing new in human history, nor in the history of freedom, that long flame reaching back to Marathon.
But it is Easter Morn where I sit and write, and I know that no city lasts forever but the City of God, and I know well that despair is a sin. It is a good day to crack open Ausonius:
Actually, until very recently China continued to export little girls to the US. Many, many flights back to US you could see the little Chinese girls with their adoptive US mothers. Never a Chinese boy.
Basically, these little girls were all “hitting the lottery”. A few of them had physical problems such as cleft palates; most were just normal little infants with zero chance for adoption in China.
I believe the powers that be have subsequently decided to greatly restrict foreign adoption of Chinese kids.