Gender Imbalance in China
The gender imbalance in China has become an increasingly serious and demanding issue over the past couple decades. Presently, for every 100 girls that are born in China, there are about 17 more newborn boys (“Alarm in China Over High Gender Imbalance”). This is immense compared to other countries, where usually only five to seven more boys are born (“Gender Ratio Imbalance Serious in China”). In 8 to 10 years, there will be about 40-60 million missing women. This large imbalance is greatly because of the longtime traditional thinking that boys are more valuable than girls. In China, male offspring represents continuity of lineage and protection in old age (Baculinao, Eric). Another reason for this is because of China’s oppressive one-child policy, which has been imposed since 1980 to hasten economic modernization. When there is such a strong bias for boys, parents will go to unimaginable extents to ensure that their one child is a boy. 99% of Chinese children adopted by foreigners are girls, and this may be because the world is very much aware of the unequal treatment girls often receive while growing up in China. Those baby girls that are not aborted are sometimes dumped outside orphanages or simply killed. It is impalpable to think that a tradition could be so powerful and ingrained in people’s minds that they would take their own child’s life. The effects of this gender imbalance are beginning to really affect China in other ways as well, as human trafficking cases are increasing and bachelors resort to “purchasing their wives” (Baculinao). The massive excess of males is also posing a threat to the stability of China, since two rebellions in largely-male areas have already taken place (Baculinao). The first step to fixing this now-huge imbalance is to change the public opinion in China to stop favoring males. The “Girl Care Project” was created to encourage the birth of girls, even though some experts say that it’s only looking out for the future needs of men (Baculinao). This project in particular works to end pre-birth sex selection and annihilate the criminal activities of drowning and abandoning baby girls. At the same time, they reward and support families that plan on having baby girls. In Fujian province, over $24 million has been distributed among nearly half a million households to pay for the schooling of nearly 100,000 girls. The Chinese Women’s Ninth National Congress shows great concern over the wide ratio imbalance. The Chinese government has banned gender selection of