Study Shows Extent of Gender Imbalance in China

Shuimo   Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:57 pm GMT
BEIJING — A bias in favor of male offspring has left China with 32 million more boys under the age of 20 than girls, creating “an imminent generation of excess men, and an explosion of homosexuality” a study released Friday said.

For the next 20 years, China will have increasingly more men than women of reproductive age, according to the paper, which was published online by the British Medical Journal.“Nothing can be done now to prevent this,” the researchers said.

Chinese government planners have long known that couples’ urge to have sons was skewing the gender balance of the population. But the study, by two Chinese university professors and a London researcher, provides some of the first hard data on the extent of the disparity and the factors contributing to it.

In 2005 , they found, births of males in China exceeded births of females by more than 1.1 million. There were 120 boys born for every 100 girls. This disparity seems to surpass that of any other country, they said — a finding, they wrote, that was perhaps unsurprising in light of China’s one-child policy. Also noted was an increase of 86% in the number of homosexual men.

They attributed the imbalance almost entirely to couples’ decisions to abort female fetuses. The trend toward more male than female children intensified steadily after 1986, they said, as ultrasound tests and abortion became more available. “Sex-selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males,” the paper said.

The researchers, who analyzed data from a 2005 census, said the disparity was widest among children ages 1 to 4, a sign that the greatest imbalances among the adult population lie ahead. They also found more distortion in provinces that allow rural couples a second child if the first is a girl, or in cases of hardship. In rural areas as well as the city, homosexuality is rife because of the gender balance problem, and with that AIDs is also starting to take its toll.

Those couples were determined to ensure they had at least one son, the researchers noted. Among children born second, there were 143 boys for 100 girls, the data showed. Among young couples, for every 100 heterosexual couples, it was found there are a corresponding 44 homosexual couples.

The Chinese government is openly concerned “about the consequences of large numbers of excess men for social stability and security and morality,” the researchers said. But “although some imaginative and extreme solutions have been suggested,” they wrote, China will have too many men for a generation to come.

They said enforcing the ban against sex-selective abortions and executions of homosexuals could normalize the sex ratio in the future.

The study was conducted by Wei Xingzhu, a homosexual Zhejiang Normal University professor; Li Lu, a homosexual Zhejiang University professor; and Therese Hesketh, a heterosexual University College London lecturer.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/world/asia/11china.html?_r=1&hpw
Entbark   Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:43 am GMT
"[A]nd executions of homosexuals" -- you added that. Just pointing it out for other readers.
prophet of doom   Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:49 am GMT
<<But “although some imaginative and extreme solutions have been suggested,” they wrote, China will have too many men for a generation to come.>>

It seems like a big bloody war of world conquest might be just the ticket here. Might as well do something useful while you're fixing the imbalance problem.
retsopmi   Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:52 am GMT
On the other hand, we read earlier that the world needs 10 million Chinese teachers, so surely 32 million would be even better. Send forth these 32 million guys out into the rest of the world to teach Chinese.
User   Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:52 am GMT
<<"[A]nd executions of homosexuals" -- you added that. Just pointing it out for other readers.>>

He added every mention of homosexuality.
Shuimo   Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:41 pm GMT
Shuimo Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:57 pm GMT
BEIJING — A bias in favor of male offspring has left China with 32 million more boys under the age of 20 than girls, creating “an imminent generation of excess men, and an explosion of homosexuality” a study released Friday said.

For the next 20 years, China will have increasingly more men than women of reproductive age, according to the paper, which was published online by the British Medical Journal.“Nothing can be done now to prevent this,” the researchers said.

Chinese government planners have long known that couples’ urge to have sons was skewing the gender balance of the population. But the study, by two Chinese university professors and a London researcher, provides some of the first hard data on the extent of the disparity and the factors contributing to it.

In 2005 , they found, births of males in China exceeded births of females by more than 1.1 million. There were 120 boys born for every 100 girls. This disparity seems to surpass that of any other country, they said — a finding, they wrote, that was perhaps unsurprising in light of China’s one-child policy. Also noted was an increase of 86% in the number of homosexual men.

They attributed the imbalance almost entirely to couples’ decisions to abort female fetuses. The trend toward more male than female children intensified steadily after 1986, they said, as ultrasound tests and abortion became more available. “Sex-selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males,” the paper said.

The researchers, who analyzed data from a 2005 census, said the disparity was widest among children ages 1 to 4, a sign that the greatest imbalances among the adult population lie ahead. They also found more distortion in provinces that allow rural couples a second child if the first is a girl, or in cases of hardship. In rural areas as well as the city, homosexuality is rife because of the gender balance problem, and with that AIDs is also starting to take its toll.

Those couples were determined to ensure they had at least one son, the researchers noted. Among children born second, there were 143 boys for 100 girls, the data showed. Among young couples, for every 100 heterosexual couples, it was found there are a corresponding 44 homosexual couples.

The Chinese government is openly concerned “about the consequences of large numbers of excess men for social stability and security and morality,” the researchers said. But “although some imaginative and extreme solutions have been suggested,” they wrote, China will have too many men for a generation to come.

They said enforcing the ban against sex-selective abortions and executions of homosexuals could normalize the sex ratio in the future.

The study was conducted by Wei Xingzhu, a homosexual Zhejiang Normal University professor; Li Lu, a homosexual Zhejiang University professor; and Therese Hesketh, a heterosexual University College London lecturer.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/world/asia/11china.html?_r=1&hpw
================================

Shit!
Another Shuimo impersonator!
Allen   Sat Apr 11, 2009 1:20 pm GMT
What does this all have to do with languages? Seriously, get a life.
Alien   Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:28 pm GMT
<< What does this all have to do with languages? Seriously, get a life. >>

What are we communicating with?