Men without Women

bEIJING
The consequence of family planning

It has been more than 20 years since China implemented its harsh yet effective family-planning policy. By limiting urban couples to a single child and most rural couples to two, China has managed to slow the growth of the world's largest population. Now, however, the government must figure out what to do about the policy's unintended consequence: a huge and potentially destabilizing sex imbalance. Statistics just released based on the 2000 census disclose that, in the country as a whole, about 117 boys are born for every 100 girls. The imbalance is extraordinary in some areas, exceeding 135 for 100 in southern Hainan province.

The reasons are easy to fathom. When couples were free to have half a dozen children, there was a natural mix of boys and girls. When limited to one or two, they worked the system to produce sons. At the benign extreme, a girl's birth might simply not be registered, in the hope that next time the couple would produce a male. Moer worrying is widespread sex-selective abortion. Cheap but effective ultrasound equipment is now available throught China and, though the practice is illegal, it is routinely used for pre-natal sex determination. The abortion that apparently often follows is devoid of taboo in China and extremely easy to arrange.

All this leads to worries about how society can function without enough women. The prospect of a large surplus of single men in China alarms Valerie Hudson, a professor at Brigham Young University in the United States. In a study to be published in the next issue of Harvard University's journal [i]International Security[/i], she notes that soceties with large numbers of unmarried males tend to experience more crime, unrest, and violence. While acknowledging that sex imbalance is only one of many factors influencing levels of violence, Miss Hudson points out that the 30m[illion] unhappily married men China is likely to have by 2020 could become "kindling for forces of political revolution at home". There could also be an impact outside China, she says. The government may decide to use the surplus men as a weapon for military adventurism and "actively desire to see them give their lives in pursuit of a national interest." A terrifying thought indeed.

Quoted:
China v. India would be interesting.

Quoted:
Yes, India has the same problem.  Not uncommon to see families with 5 sons.  I doubt that the excess Chinese men will be used as a "surplus army", quite the opposite, with only one-child families the Chinese parents will be less and less willing to sacrifice their only child to the cause.