China Daily article "30m men face bleak future as singles:"
By 2020, some 30 million Chinese men will find it well-nigh impossible to find a bride as a result of a rising gender imbalance, a report warned yesterday.
For every 100 baby girls born in 2005, there were 118.58 baby boys, and the gap will continue to widen, said the report by the State Population and Family Planning Commission.
In southern provinces such as Guangdong and Hainan, the picture is grimmer: There are 130 baby boys for every 100 baby girls.
Since 2005, the number of men reaching marriage age has been much more than women. "The increasing difficulties men face finding wives may lead to social instability," said the report by more than 300 Chinese demographers after two years' research.
This is because Chinese traditionally prefer boys, and with their financial status improved, those in the booming coastal areas can afford to find out the sex of the foetus.
Tom Barnett comments in his post "6 reasons not to worry about all those Chinese men:"
Bigger issue in my mind is rising elder population, mostly rural. To me, the excess-males-means-war scenario is yet another example of analysts trying to hold on to the China enemy image they so desperately desire. China has gone through, is going through now, and will go through in the future, so many harder issues that I tend to downplay the alleged profoundity of this trend. If China wasn't seeing so many rural males emmigrating now and wasn't opening up so much (to include a rapid rethink on sending off "unwanted daughters" (a historical blip soon to disappear as more childless Chinese couples begin to value girls more)), then I'd be worried, but all those things are happening.
Comments