One-child China

Since the early 1980s, when China implemented its “One-child Policy”, an estimated 300 million births have been prevented in China. With the cultural phenomenon of ultimate male child supremacy, however, China’s sex imbalance has become a problem of national security concern.

When a couple reaches its retirement years, it is the son who is responsible to take care of and provide for the aging parents. Female children are not much more than property to be sold to another family’s son to raise up children for that other family. Traditionally, very little is to be gained by producing female children. When the “One-child Policy” was implemented, those families had little incentive to keep their female children, but would instead abort them or otherwise dispose of them (infanticide). After 20 years of this practice the Chinese population is drastically imbalanced with a majority of males. Some official estimates suggest an imbalance of as much as 17 percent or 120 males for every 100 females. With a population of 1.314 billion, that suggests a numerical difference of 40 million more males than females nationwide. In some areas of China the difference is 26-38 percent more males than females.

“Coalitional Aggression,” that’s the term used to describe the behavior of poor surplus male populations that have no chance of doing anything but existing. They resort to violence in order to improve their situations. Not only do they resort to violence, but they band together with other outcast, surplus males, to form violent coalitions by which to accomplish their objectives. Kidnapping, human trafficking, prostitution, HIV/AIDS, and a multitude of other problems, along with crime in general, are becoming rampant and increasing almost exponentially in many areas in China. Just using the imagination should paint a vividly clear picture of the dire circumstances, socially and economically, China will find itself in over the next several decades. Not only China, but many of its neighbors as those surplus males make their way out of China in order to find a better way of life and/or a bride. Potentially China’s dilemma could flow over its boarders and afflict a great number of other countries, the United States included.

The development of “Bachelor Villages,” villages where an enormous number of men are single and unable to find wives, is a growing trend. The first generation born under the “One-child Policy” is just now reaching the age of marriage and the crisis is becoming evident.

The “Population vice Minister” claims that measures are being taken to alleviate much of this crisis. He claims prenatal sex-determination procedures and sex-selective abortions are illegal. What he doesn’t say is they have been for some time and a great many people are able to determine the gender of their baby despite the government’s procedures to eliminate the practices. The Chinese government is implementing other mechanisms as well to eliminate the problem, giving grants, scholarships, subsidies, retirement pensions, etc. to families with female children.

Despite the obvious potential crisis, the “One-child Policy” remains in effect and will continue. The government refuses to relax it and even recently renewed it. They must believe the potential danger of an exploding population exceeds that of the sex imbalance. Perhaps they would prefer to see millions of unmarried men as an advantage militarily, or perhaps that HIV/AIDS will slow their mushrooming population, further accomplishing their eventual goal of fewer Chinese. In any case, the problem does not only belong to the Chinese but to the world. There must be something said for measures such as this and their unintended consequences.