China drive to curb female foetus abortions

Straits Times ^

[DeaconBenjamin]

BEIJING - China has launched a campaign to curb a widespread practice of aborting female foetuses which has led to a disastrous imbalance in the ratio between boys and girls, state media said.

The country's wide network of family planning clinics will be used to promote the idea of gender equality and improve the living environment of girls, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The campaign will focus on rural and underdeveloped areas, where discrimination against girls is particularly severe, according to Xinhua.

New technologies, especially ultrasound scanning, has made it possible for Chinese couples to know the sex of their unborn baby and, in many cases, have an abortion if it was a girl.

Strict population policies have made matters worse, as rural couples are usually allowed to have only two children at most.

The result is that for every 100 newborn girls, there are more than 119 newborn boys, according to the most recent statistics.

The ratio tends to gradually decrease because of higher mortality rates in boys in childhood and adolescence.

Even so, it is now unavoidable that in two decades, there will be millions of young Chinese men who are unable to marry because there are not enough women. Experts have warned that such an imbalance could lead to severe social problems - from higher crime rates to increased prostitution - if a large number of young males are unable to settle down in marriage.

The idea that baby boys are more valuable is deeply-rooted in rural China, since male heirs have traditionally looked after their parents in dotage, while girls have been married off to other families.

[DeaconBenjamin]

The only thing that will reduce the abortion of baby girls is elimination of population control policies. I don't even think bribes would work.

[RightWhale]

promote the idea of gender equality and improve the living environment of girls

China may be veering dangerously close to the concept of human rights.

[Texas_Dawg]

China may be veering dangerously close to the concept of human rights.

Yes... we must move to crush this increasing move of theirs towards freedom at all costs. We must never allow them to actually become democratic and free. These evil Chi-coms (or, "every Chinese person") must be destroyed and kept down under Communism. The future of a few privileged American manufacturers is at stake if we allow the Turd World to become free. (/sarcasm)

[StatesEnemy]

The future of a few privileged American manufacturers

They're not "American" - they only use America as unpaid bodyguards.

[Tax-chick]

The idea that baby boys are more valuable is deeply-rooted in rural China, since male heirs have traditionally looked after their parents in dotage, while girls have been married off to other families.

Well, in just a few years, parents of girls will be able to sell them as brides, for (what passes for) a rural Chinese fortune! Every cloud has a silver lining ...

[ChemistCat]

I've been talking about this for YEARS. It's a problem with a socioeconomic cause. Talking to these farmers isn't going to change the FACT that they will suffer near-starvation in old-age if they don't have a son to provide for them.

And China will need to go to war to correct the imbalance--to seek the women of their neighbors while killing males on both sides of the conflict till things balance again. That's just how it is. It is not avoidable without drastic social changes that will have the same effect, but are far more cumbersome and untraditional--such as polyandry.

[ChemistCat]

Most Chinese in these rural areas have no fortune with which to purchase brides for their sons.

[DeaconBenjamin]

Bet they don't look to North Korea for brides.

[only1percent]

China has no social security, no 401ks, no medicare, no private pension and retiree healtcare systems, no fall-back welfare or medical treatment program for impoverished seniors. A couple without a son is at serious risk of having to work until they drop dead, or grow to sick to work, at which point they'll shortly die.

Sex selection abortion was the obvious outcome of the Communist's one-child rules. Even the softened version, which allows one a second child only if the first child was a girl, will still yield massive and destabilizing gender disproporition.

[Ciexyz]

My pastor traveled to China on a missions trip and was hosted by a Chinese pastor and his wife, who had two daughters. They had to pay a fine in order to try to have a second child, and they knew before the birth that the second child was female, yet they elected to bring the child into the world. God bless 'em.

[Ciexyz]

Today a girl of marriageable age in China can afford to be choosy, to demand education and a good job in her future husband. This leaves behind the marginal males who are deficient in some degree (education, looks, family wealth, etc.) There is arising a subclass of unmarriageable men in China, who have scant hopes of finding a wife.

[GOPJ]

The hardest paradigm to stop is one with short term gain and long term disaster.

[DeaconBenjamin]

I bet their example speaks volumes to their neighbors.

[The Pheonix]

This has a lot to do with the cultural norm (Confucius teachings?) that the most sacred duty of a Man is to produce a male heir who will keep the family name (the family tree) continous; the biggest sin for a man is to not have a male heir for his family tree.......

[avenir]

This theme was the subject of "King of Masks", the story of an elderly street performer who has no male heir to pass his craft on to. He "buys" a male child on the black market only to discover it was a cast-off little girl impersonating a boy. What will he do with this unwanted child?

Good movie.

[Van Jenerette]

it is now unavoidable that in two decades, there will be millions of young Chinese men who are unable to marry because there are not enough women. Experts have warned that such an imbalance could lead to severe social problems...

Couldn't these young men just move to Canada and marry each other? /sarcasm

[The Pheonix]

yes, I saw the movie

enjoyed it

[The Pheonix]

indeed, the sense of duty and loyalty that an average Chinese peasant has for his own Family is so strong that NOT EVEN Mao Tze-Tung and the Commies dared to cross the Red-Line to try to destroy the Chinese concept of the Family, and to convert this loyalty to the Communist Party. Mao knew that the response of 1 billion Chinese would be to overthrow him and his commies, faster than you can say "Jack Robinson"

Old saying;

"I slept and dreamt, that Life is pleasures and enjoyments'

I awake and realize, Life is but a DUTY"

[Dr. Marten]

If they eliminated Population Control Policies as you suggest, they would be worse off than what they are now.

The way things are now, there are still too many people starving and living in poverty and eliminating the population controls would only send these figures through the roof even further. Especially since most chinese would love to have more than one child.

[DeaconBenjamin]

What I said is that nothing short of lifting the controls will achieve the goal which the Chinese government has set. Do you agree with this statement?