The penny has finally dropped for the Chinese government. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has admitted that gender imbalance because of its draconian one-child policy is a serious problem. In a report in the Chinese newspaper Global Times, demographers Wang Guangzhou and Wang Yuesheng sketched some of China’s intractable problems.

Sex-selective abortions: "extremely commonplace, especially in rural areas".

Scarcity of wives in rural areas: men in poorer parts of China will have to accept late marriage or no marriage at all. "The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40 years old in the countryside. They will be more dependent on social security as they age and have fewer household resources to rely on."

Abductions and trafficking of women: "rampant" in areas with excess numbers of men, according to the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

Illegal marriages and forced prostitution: also problematic.

The normal male-female ratio is between 103-107 males for every 100 females. But in 2005, the last year for which data are available in China, there were 119 boys for every 100 girls. In some areas the male-female ratio was as high as 130 males for every 100 females.

All this is old news, but it may be the first time that an official government body has acknowledged the horrific consequences of requiring couples to stop at one child. ~ London Telegraph, Jan 11

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