China's wife shortage could cause 'instability'
Updated Fri. Jan. 12 2007 8:13 AM ET
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...2/china_gender_070112/20070112?hub=TopStories
CTV.ca News Staff
China's one-child policy is resulting in a dramatic gender imbalance, with the most recent numbers projecting there will be 30 million more marriageable men than women by 2020.
The China Daily newspaper reported the developments on Friday, suggesting the growing imbalance will make it difficult for men to find wives and could lead to social instability.
The report by the State Population and Family Planning Commission found that 118.58 boys were born for every 100 girls in 2005.
That's a dramatic increase from 2000, when 110 boys were born for every 100 girls.
And in more rural, often poorer provinces where couples traditionally hope for a son to look after them in their old age, the numbers are even more startling. In Guangdong and Hainan province, for example, there were 130 boys born for every 100 girls.
Female fetal abortions are reportedly high in China, where strict laws introduced in the 1970s limit couples to one child, but where there is a traditional preference for male children.
There is also suspected under-reporting of female births.
"Discrimination against the female sex remains the primary cause of China's growing gender imbalance," Liu Bohong, vice director of the women studies institute under the All-China Women's Federation, was quoted as saying in the report, which was put together by 300 Chinese demographers after two years of research.
"The increasing difficulties men face finding wives may lead to social instability," the report stated.
Wang Guangzhou, researcher at the Institute of Population and Labour Economics affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily the solution is the creation of a social security system that would ensure rural seniors are taken care of in their old age, reducing their dependence on male sons.
The report also suggested: "We need to develop a 'movement to embrace girls'... and effectively contain the trend towards greater gender imbalances."
According to the numbers included in the report, China's population will increase by 200 million in the next 30 years. Under that model, it would hit 1.36 billion by 2010 and 1.45 billion by 2020, and 1.5 billion by 2033.
China's current birth rate is 1.8, meaning one woman of childbearing age gives birth to an average of 1.8 children.
