October 18, 2007
GONNA NEED A LOT MORE BATHROOM STALLS:
China's surplus of sons: A geopolitical time bomb (Michael Fragoso, October 19, 2007, CS Monitor)
The unintended consequences of this government policy are staggering. The proportion of male births to female births (the "sex ratio") is not merely unusual, but alarming. Worldwide, there are already 100 million girls "missing" due to sex-selective abortion and female infanticide, according to the English medical journal The Lancet. Fifty million of these girls are thought to be from China. In many provinces, the sex ratio at birth is between 120 to 130 boys for every 100 girls; the natural number is about 104. What will happen in future decades when these boys grow up and look for wives? [...]Posted by Orrin Judd at October 18, 2007 11:18 PMAnother serious threat is to regional stability and, by extension, international security. As Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer recently wrote in their prize-winning work on demography and security, "Bare Branches," surplus male populations in a region often result in violence – through banditry, rioting, or militarization. The 6 to 5 male-female ratio in China means there are a lot of men who will not be able to start families. If history is any guide, they will either find less savory things to occupy their time, or find women through equally unsavory means.
Solution: Mail order brides from Africa. Of course, this may seem to mean a surplus of African men. But because you have fast population growth in Africa, and men tend to marry younger women, it could work out numerically. The Chinese would have to get over some racism, and the cultural adaptations will be formidable. But sex is a powerful enough desire that they might be willing to get over those hurdles.
Alternatively, the Chinese "bare branches" could move to Africa, establish themselves there, and find wives-- and maybe stay, or maybe go back later.
Posted by: Nathan Smith at October 19, 2007 12:38 AMNice idea Nathan, one problem.
If you think a member of the KKK is racist, wait til you meet a Chinese.
The asian cultures are unapologetically racist, and wouldn't import babies of any other race.
Just look at Japan's treatment of Koreans.
Posted by: Bruno at October 19, 2007 6:53 AMHmm maybe, maybe not. More and more South Koreans are happily importing Vietnamese wives.
Posted by: Ali Choudhury at October 19, 2007 7:22 AM