National Sex Ratios in China

Sex Ratios at birth over time in China:[xxix]

106:100 in 1979 (106 boys for every 100 girls)

111:100 in 1988

117:100 in 2001

118:100 in 2010[xxx]

According to the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, as of January, 2010, the average male-to-female sex ratio for the infant-to-four-year-old age group in China is 123.26 males for every 100 females (123.26:100).[xxxi]

Six provinces have sex ratios of over 130:100 in the 1-4 age group.[xxxii]

Two provinces, Jiangxi and Henan, have ratios of over 140:100 in the 1-4 age group.[xxxiii]

Four provinces—Anhui, Guangdong, Hunan, and Hainan—have ratios of over 130:100 in the 1-4 age group.[xxxiv]

Seven provinces have ratios between 120:100 and 129:100 in the 1-4 age group.[xxxv]

Sex ratios are highest in the age group of 1-4 years and in rural areas, which will likely increase social tensions as millions of men are unable to find brides.[xxxvi]

Only two provinces, Tibet and Xinjiang, had sex ratios within normal limits across the age range. These two provinces are largely inhabited by minority ethnic groups and have more lenient family planning laws.[xxxvii]

Between 1986 and 2005 there was an increase in excess males at birth in all provinces except Xinjiang.[xxxviii]

The total sex ratio at birth is over 130:100 in three provinces (Shaanxi, Anhui, and Jiangxi) and over 120:100 in 14 provinces.[xxxix]

As an example, in 2007, Lianyungang city had a gender ratio of 163:100 for children under 5.[xl]

Another city, Suining city, had a birth ratio of 152:100 in 2007.[xli]

There is a gradient between urban (115:100), town (120:100), and rural (123:100) sex ratios at birth.[xlii]

Wealthier and more educated provinces, where traditional preference for sons is changing, produced medium sex ratios. A study in 2001 showed that more than 50% of women of reproductive age in wealthier provinces express no preference for a son.[xliii]

The provinces with the highest sex ratios are clustered together in the central-southern region.[xliv]

Recently, an economist suggested combating the unbalanced sex ratios by giving families with only daughters a subsidy worth one year of income. He projected that doing so would decrease the number of missing girls by 67%. Another solution he put forward was to implement a three child policy, which he says would reduce the number of missing girls by 56%.[xlv]

Sex Ratios for 2^nd and 3^rd Children in China

The sex ratio at birth for first children is slightly high in cities and towns but was within normal limits in rural areas; however, the ratio rose very steeply for second or more children in cities (138:100), towns (137:100), and rural areas (146:100).[xlvi]

There were very high sex ratios for second children in Anhui (190:100) and Jiangsu (192:100).[xlvii]

The ratio for second and higher births in Beijing is 149 and the ratio for second and higher births in Shanghai is 175.[xlviii]

For third births, the sex ratio rose to over 200:100 in four provinces.[xlix]

In Beijing, among third children, almost three baby boys are born for every baby girl (almost 300:100).[l]

The sex ratio increased steadily from 108:100 for those born between 1985 and 1989 to 124:100 for those born between 2000 and 2004.[li]

In rural areas, sex ratios rose steeply for second order births, where it reached 146:100. Nine provinces had ratios of over 160:100 for second order births.[lii]

In 2000, at least half of the female fetuses that would have been a second order, or higher, daughter were aborted.[liii]

Conservatively, between 1990 and 2000, 5.9 million girls went missing, with the increased first and second birth sex ratio responsible for 97% of those girls.[liv]

One particular variant of the one child policy, which allows a second child if the first is a girl, leads to the highest sex ratios.[lv]

One study from the early 2000’s found an astounding at-birth gender ratio of 385 boys to 100 girls for a woman’s last pregnancy.[lvi]

China’s Sex Ratios in the 1-4 age group by Province (# of boys born for every 100 girls) [lvii]

Male Crime Statistics in China

China’s crime rate has nearly doubled in the last 20 years.[lviii]

Incidents of social unrest have risen from about 40,000 in 2001 to over 90,000 in 2009.[lix]

It was found that sex ratios and crime rate were connected, with just a one percent increase in sex ratio leading to a five percent increase in crime rate.[lx]

The parts of China with the most male-biased sex ratios are experiencing a variety of maladies, all tied to the presence of too many young men. These problems include gambling, alcohol and drug abuse, kidnapping, and trafficking of women, incidences of which are all rising steeply in China.[lxi]

These incidents of social unrest are becoming larger, more violent, more likely to cross provincial borders, and more diverse in terms of participants and grievances.[lxii]

A study concluded that increased sex ratios are correlated with increased bride abduction, trafficking of women, rape and prostitution.[lxiii]

Unmarried men between the ages of 24 and 35 are also found to be three times more likely to murder than their married counterparts.[lxiv]

High male sex ratios can lead to more authoritarian forms of government in an effort to crack down on crime.[lxv]

High male sex ratios also lead to a lower rate of female literacy and workforce participation.[lxvi]

Unmarried men in China are almost always poor and uneducated, 74% don’t have a high school diploma. This number increases in the rural areas of China to 97%, with 40% or rural bachelors also being illiterate.[lxvii]

Lack of a female counterpart has led to a downward cycle for rural men. As one researcher described it, this is a “poor à bare branch à poorer” cycle. According to Nicholas Eberstadt, the enormous and growing inequality problem that already exists in China is furthered by the increasing frustration and anger by those who are left behind — those are disproportionately the unmarriageable.[lxviii]

The tensions associated with so many bachelors in China's big cities might tempt its future leaders to mobilize this excess manpower and go pick a fight, or invade another country. China is already co-opting poor unmarried young men into the People's Liberation Army and the paramilitary People's Armed Police.[lxix]

According to German scholar Gunnar Heinsohn, European imperial expansion after 1500 was the result of a male “youth bulge.” Japan’s imperial expansion after 1914 was the result of a similar male youth bulge. During the Cold War, it was male youth-bulge countries—Algeria, El Salvador, and Lebanon—that saw the worst civil wars and revolutions. Heinsohn has also linked the recent rise of Islamist extremism in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan to an Islamic male youth bulge.[lxx]

Political scientists Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer warn that China and India could be the next countries that, as a result of a surplus of men, will see increased violence and extremism.[lxxi]

Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard University, argues that the surplus of men in China will lead to domestic instability or militaristic expansionism, or even imperialism. This is all the more likely with the shrill nationalism already in Asia.[lxxii]

Previous societies with large numbers of unattached men have turned to a more authoritarian political system.[lxxiii]

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 1052