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rodeodance Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:02 AM
Original message
China facing major gender imbalance (30 MIL more MEN)
China facing major gender imbalance
15 minutes ago


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070112/ap_on_re_as/china_gender_imbalance

BEIJING - China will have 30 million more men of marriageable age than women in less than 15 years as a gender imbalance resulting in part from the country's tough one-child policy becomes more pronounced, state media reported Friday. Traditional preferences for sons has led to the widespread - but illegal - practice of women aborting babies if an early term sonogram shows it is a girl.


The tens of millions of men who will not be able to find a wife could also lead to social instability problems, the China Daily said in a front-page report.

China imposed strict population controls in the 1970s to limit growth of its huge population, but one side effect has been a jump in gender selection of babies.

"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 a report from the State Population and Family Planning Commission.
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iamahaingttta Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:07 AM
Response to Original message
1. India too...
I predict a major land war between China and India in the 20teens for no reason other than to kill off some of the millions of extra men both countries will have soon...
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Orrin_73 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:27 AM
Response to Reply #1
7. There was a documentary on this not long ago
It was about Indian males that were not able to find women to marry. They were mainly men in their thirties in a village , frustrated that they could not find brides. Most families chose to have boys instead of girls, the girls were aborted. Many young brides were pressured by their mother in laws to abort the girls. I found it very disturbing.
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freethought Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 12:24 AM
Response to Reply #7
34. There are dowries involved as well.
I know in India, the bride's family is expected to present a dowry to the groom's family, usually valuables such as gold or cash. I gathered that a groom's family will demand a dowry well beyond the bride's family's means or be quite heavy-handed in demanding the bride's dowry. With so many in India so poor (not everyone is benefiting from there economic boom), brides are often pressured to abort the girls to avoid having to pay a dowry in the future. I also gathered that some of the newborn girls are sometimes murdered for the same reasons.
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Nihil Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 09:47 AM
Response to Reply #1
11. Don't worry, they'll have a *very* good reason ...
... owing to the loss of freshwater affecting both sides of the Himalayas.

If my memory serves me correctly, one of the potentially divertable
watersheds is just inside the Indian border with China.

Oops.
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AngryAmish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 10:09 AM
Response to Reply #1
12. Not a chance
You think Americans are spoiled? China has raised a nation of only children. The mothers of China will not stand to lose a son in a war.
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rayofreason Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 10:15 PM
Response to Reply #12
25. You have a point...
...but it is a generation too soon.

Yes, a set of 4 grandparents who each have one child and one grandchild between the four will not want to see that grandchild lost in a war. But until the generation with only one grandchild for 4 grandparents is in the position of authority (60s - 70s), they will not be able to direct policy. So the scenario you paint will come about, but in 2040 or 2050, not now. Between now and then there will be a surplus of testosterone with no outlet. This will make international affairs very dicey, with war between China and everybody (anybody) around them likely. Also, it will be a good time to invest in sex doll companies.
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MGD Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:13 AM
Response to Original message
2. And I thought it was hard to get a date with a decent girl in America.
sucks to be them.
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Blue_Tires Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 09:43 PM
Response to Reply #2
22. +1
last thing i need around here is more horndog competition from an already flooded market!!
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NashVegas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:15 AM
Response to Original message
3. Time For Legal Polyandry
just sayin'
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fasttense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:15 AM
Response to Original message
4. One of the reasons that polygamy is not
encouraged is that it leads to an imbalance of women, especially in isolated areas. The rich old man gets ten, twenty and sometimes thousands of women (How many concubines did the Japanese Emperor have?), while a poor young man is frequently left with nothing more than prostitutes. When young men see no chance of having a wife and settling down to raise children, they tend to rebel and act out.
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Delphinus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:16 AM
Response to Original message
5. Hmm ...
wonder how that happened? :sarcasm:
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NMDemDist2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:22 AM
Response to Original message
6. I knew this would happen when they instituted the one child rule
how come they didn't??

:shrug:
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Jawja Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 09:35 AM
Response to Reply #6
10. It's not NICE
to fool with Mother Nature.

:spank:
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jwirr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 07:47 PM
Response to Reply #6
18. Yes because then they aborted until they could get the gender they
wanted. If it were not so sad it would be funny.
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tanyev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:39 AM
Response to Original message
8. Seems like families with girls will hold all the bargaining chips very soon.
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ohio2007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 10:33 AM
Response to Reply #8
15. selling little girls to the highest bidder ?
yeah, I can see that as a capitol idea
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tanyev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 10:45 AM
Response to Reply #15
17. Not what I meant.
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superconnected Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 09:58 PM
Response to Reply #8
23. girls being the minority means they won't hold any power
Edited on Fri Jan-12-07 09:59 PM by superconnected
the richest men will get them. They will eventually have no rights if men out number them so much.
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tblue37 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-13-07 12:43 AM
Response to Reply #8
28. No--The men just kidnap young women (bride abduction).
Or they kidnap baby girls so their young sons will have someone to marry in the future.

It never works out so that girls have the advantage or families have an advantage for having girls.
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The2ndWheel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 09:32 AM
Response to Original message
9. That worked well
What would they have, 3 or 4 billion people if the state didn't "succeed" in curbing the population growth?

As long as there is enough food, population will grow. Since we artificcially control the amount of food we have with agriculture, any population issue won't be solved without getting rid of agriculture. Since that isn't going to happen, as it would kill billions, we have no choice but to grow at any cost. The more people we have, the more resources we will consume, so all this efficiency talk won't really have much of an impact if more people just use more.

We have so many problems that we're just going to make worse when we can no longer push them off into the future. Everyone better hope there is either oil for the rest of time, or some magic energy source(s) out there.
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raccoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 10:16 AM
Response to Original message
13. One possible solution.

Encourage them to marry older women. In the US, at least, as you look at older groups (40s, 50s, etc.) there are more women around than men.

OK, I know it's a hard sell! :silly:
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NJCher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:44 PM
Response to Reply #13
21. Not neccessarily, Harold
Said Maude.



Cher
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ohio2007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 10:29 AM
Response to Original message
14. Planned parenthood by "the book"
Cultural revolution of the 60's can also be a factor.
Long story short,
China needs women
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Dulcinea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 10:42 AM
Response to Original message
16. This will be the single biggest thing that changes China forever.
If Chinese men want a Chinese girl to marry...well, maybe they'll have to come to the West! Look at all the Americans, and probably Canadians too, adopting baby girls from China.

And what will they get? Women who have been raised outside traditional Chinese customs & aren't going to play second fiddle to any man. These women aren't going to be subservient, give up their careers, or take from their children to care for their husbands' elderly parents as custom dictates. They may look Asian, but they'll be all Western on the inside. Think about it!
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hogwyld Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:00 PM
Response to Original message
19. On the flip side of all of this
All of these men with nothing to do other than work will further outproduce us and cripple the world economy. Failing that, they'll have all of the cannon fodder they need to take Taiwan, and expand further around asia in the quest for resources.
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mcscajun Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 08:28 PM
Response to Original message
20. We haven't *begun* to see the problems arising from this...
Edited on Fri Jan-12-07 08:46 PM by mcscajun
Yet. We're only now seeing the "coming of age" of the first generation of children born under the one-child policy. Barring widespread famine, war, or pestilence, by 2020 there will be 40,000,000 males in China who have no hope of a bride. None. Now, just think of a country with about FORTY MILLION completely unattached males, all between the ages of twenty and forty, full of testosterone.

The social problems alone will be staggering, not to mention the unrest and crime that will in all likelihood result.

Now imagine you have to govern such a country; there's a recipe for nightmares.

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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 10:00 PM
Response to Reply #20
24. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
gulliver Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 11:11 PM
Response to Original message
26. Shouldn't this make girl children more valuable?
Supply and demand. The parents with girl children (not to mention the girls themselves) should be in a seller's market. What girls there are should theoretically have their pick of men. The parents of the boy children may not get grandchildren. Yikes.
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tblue37 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-13-07 12:47 AM
Response to Reply #26
29. As I explained in an earlier post,
in rural areas there is already kidnapping and rape of young women by men who steal them to be "brides." There is already kidnapping of baby girls by families with young sons, so their sons will have soemone to marry in the future.

It never works out so that women have the advantage. You will just see more women "married" by force.
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daleo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-12-07 11:49 PM
Response to Original message
27. I predict a booming market in prostitution in China. n/t
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Quantess Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-13-07 10:13 PM
Response to Reply #27
31. And, a booming case of Syphyllis.
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-13-07 02:41 AM
Response to Original message
30. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
Lydia Leftcoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-13-07 11:57 PM
Response to Original message
32. This is a perfect example of individuals outsmarting themselves
Since by Chinese tradition, the oldest son stays with the parents and takes care of them in their old age and inherits the family property when they die, and since daughters were traditionally married off to other villages, sons were considered a form of social security. In a time of high child mortality, you wanted to have a couple of extra sons, just to make sure one would live long enough to see you through your old age.

So along comes the one-child policy. Having been to China, I can understand why the government though that it had to do something about its population growth. However, they should have done the math and realized two things:

1) A potential gender imbalance, resulting from the overwhelming preference for sons

2) A problem not often mentioned--with one grandchild for every four grandparents, China is going to "gray" in a way that makes Japan's graying seem slow, and Japan began heading towards "graying" after World War II, when the average number of children per family dropped from five to two. It will be even worse in China, where the average number of children per family is slightly over one.

In the matter of the individuals outsmarting themselves, everyone thinks, "It will be to my advantage if I have a son."

Well...maybe... Because in traditional China, it wasn't actually the sons who took care of the parents. It was their wives.

So these short-sighted parents get their precious son, only to find out 25 years later that there's no one for him to marry.

Selfishness can be its own punishment sometimes.
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lynne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 12:23 AM
Response to Original message
33. Sooner or later, that imbalance will solve their population problem.
And the women will hold ALL the cards when it comes to getting whatever they want!
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Divine Discontent Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 01:32 AM
Response to Original message
35. oh come ON people!
our gov. sent 3000 men to their graves for billions in profits, and we all know China's government gladly was tying down young women in "hospitals" to they starved to death to help control their population, so you all don't think China's grossly wealthy class will "FIX" the problem with a timely flooding, or famine, or accidental poisoning year after year for the next however many years they need, to correct their previous error???



www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- antibush prodem stickers/shirts
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SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 05:23 AM
Response to Original message
36. Smells like WAR to me.
Edited on Sun Jan-14-07 05:23 AM by SoCalDem
Millions of angry, frustrated men with not much hope of ever having a wife & family or a good job.. That's the stuff armies are made of..
PBS had a very good documentary about this very thing a while back.

the elderly are suffering too, since the daughters and daughters-in-law are the usual caretakers of the old. These "valuable" daughters are moving to the cities to snag a "rich" man..(which they can easily do seeing as how they are a hot commodity)..

How to upset a culture in one generation :eyes:
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