Kathleen E.

McLaughlinJanuary 3, 2013 14:36

China and the worst-ever, manmade gender gap

By 2020, sociologists expect an extra 35 million C inese men ! t at"s roug ly t e population o# Cana$a%

BEIJING, China Its a fact so frequently repeated and well known, it often seems taken for ranted! China has too many men" #hree decades after China implemented its contentious one$child policy, coupled with a lin erin cultural preference for %oys and the ad&ent of cheap and accessi%le ultrasound technolo y, the countrys skewed ender ratio has only otten worse" 'ocial scientists in China say the upcomin census results could re&eal a ender ratio of ()) %oys %orn for e&ery (** irls" +nder natural conditions, there are typically (*,$(*- %oys for e&ery (** irls" In China, millions of %a%y irls were simply ne&er %orn" #he country has a certified shorta e of women" #hrou h a series of chan es and loosenin restrictions, the one$child policy is %e innin to fade, and in fact, it only affects a%out half of couples" #he Chinese o&ernment is reluctant to let the policy o entirely, %ut seems perpetually on the &er e of a%andonin it" 'till, the dama e is done" #he social e.periment is well underway, thanks to strict enforcement of the rule for more than )* years" By )*)*, sociolo ists e.pect an /e.tra0 1, million Chinese men males for whom there are simply no a&aila%le female partners" #hats sli htly more than the population of Canada" #his army of sin le youn men is comin of a e now" 2ookin at the ne.t decade and the questions loom lar e! 3hat risks do they pose and how will China handle them4 #he questions are particularly rele&ant in the wake of uprisin s in the 5ra% world, where restless youn men are often pointed to at the heart of protests" In )**,, two researchers took on the dicey question of skewed ender ratios in 5sia, particularly China and India" In their %ook, /Bare Branches,0 6alerie 7udson and 5ndrea den Boer ar ued that the surplus males of 5sia could pose security risks" In more recent years, Chinas sta erin economic rise, dou%le di its rowth rates and a new position as the worlds second$lar est economy, ha&e helped sta&e off trou%le %y creatin 8o%s and economic opportunity" 'till, 7udson said, pro%lems and the seeds of unrest remain" #he country has an estimated (**,*** protests each year, mostly in rural areas, related to e&erythin from en&ironmental dama e to la%or issues" /I would su est that China is not as 9calm as one mi ht ima ine,0 7udson said" /#he num%er of protests and riots has increased in an almost e.ponential form o&er the last (* years"0

/Crime rates, especially &iolent crime rates, are risin ,0 she added" /#hese are the har%in ers of the social unrest which we %elie&e will result from a%out (, percent of the youn adult male population %ein surplus to the num%er of women in that a e cohort"0 #hou h other countries ha&e skewed ender ratios, Chinas is likely worst than any other :thou h 6ietnam is close;, said 7udson" 5s its also a %ur eonin world power and the worlds most populous nation, what happens here matters" #he shorta e of women has taken all sorts of stran e twists and turns in Chinese society from a dramatic rise in prostitution and traffickin to une.pected sources of power for women who pre&iously had none" #his Glo%al<ost series will e.plore the ways in which Chinese society is chan in , adaptin to the worlds worst$e&er manmade ender ap" In on oin stories, well look at %oth sides of the coin and try to e.plain what happens in a country with too many men" http!==www" lo%alpost"com=dispatch=news=re ions=asia$pacific=china=((*-(,=china$and$ the$worst$e&er$man$made$ ender$ ap