The problem of too many men and not enough women in Chinese villages is likely to become much worse, a researcher warned.
China has 32 million more men aged under 20 than women, a paper published last month by Therese Hesketh of University College London. Her research suggests that rural areas, where the imbalance is greatest, will be further affected because of women “marrying out” and going to live in cities.
“It looks as if high sex-ratio areas, particularly in central China, are likely to get worse. Because of migration, we are hearing again and again that women are going to urban areas and staying. In rural areas that will exacerbate the sex ratio very markedly,” she said.
“In the past, migrants have tended to go back home to permanently settle. But women [now] are finding partners in urban areas and not going back. Men are unable to do that. Urban women will not marry a migrant man; men can’t marry up,” she said.
Hesketh said her team had not set out to investigate the problem, but rural men had frequently raised the issue. The researchers are now embarking on a fuller study to try to assess the extent of the problem.
Farmers have been migrating to cities since the 1990s, but Hesketh believes the numbers have soared as it becomes easier for migrants to settle in the cities.
Her paper in the British Medical Journal last month, which was coauthored by Wei Xing Zhu of Zhejiang Normal University, and Li Lu of Zhejiang University, says China has 119 male births for every 100 girls, compared with a ratio of 107 to 100 in industrialized countries.
“We have never seen these sex ratios before. There have been populations where the sex ratio has altered, but never to this degree,” Hesketh said.
The biggest male-female gap is among children under the age of four, meaning the problem of “bare branches” — young men who cannot find partners or have children — is likely to increase.
The gap is greater in provinces that allow couples in rural areas to have a second child if their first is a girl, since many families are determined to ensure they have at least one son. Among second-borns, boys outnumber girls by 143 to 100. The data is based on the 2005 census.
Sex-selective abortion, banned but still widely practiced, is the main reason for the higher number of males, the study suggests.
Also See: Greater expectations in the hinterland
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS