By GEOFFREY YORK
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Fearing an explosion of social unrest from a growing army of unmarried men, China is vowing to crackdown on the rising epidemic of abortions of female fetuses.
China will face an excess of 30 million men of marriageable age, compared with the number of marriageable women, if the trend continues to the end of the next decade, the latest projections show.
Because of China's limit of one child to a family, combined with traditional preferences for boys, a growing number of couples are aborting their babies when an ultrasound reveals it is a girl.
Chinese authorities are increasingly alarmed by the trend. "People who conduct illegal gender testing of fetuses and sex-selective abortions should face serious punishment," China declared Monday in a joint statement by its government and the ruling Communist Party.
The gender imbalance, which continues to grow worse, is "a hidden danger" that will "affect social stability," the statement warned.
Among newborn babies in China, there were 118 boys for every 100 girls in 2005. The ratio has dramatically worsened since 2000, when the ratio was 110 boys for every 100 girls. In some regions of China, there are as many as 130 boys for every 100 girls. (By comparison, the ratio in industrialized countries is between 104 and 107 boys for every 100 girls.)
The growing sophistication of medical technology has allowed Chinese families to take action on their traditional preference for boys _ a preference based on rural ideas that men are the family breadwinners and inheritors of the family line.
In the announcement, China promised to improve its protection of baby girls. Anyone who kills, abandons or injures an infant girl should be "severely punished," the authorities said.
The government also promised to tighten its supervision of medical institutions where ultrasound technology and abortions are available.
China has already banned the use of ultrasound technology to determine the sex of a fetus, and it prohibits the use of abortions for sex-selection reasons.
But the current penalties are relatively mild. The government did not give details of the new penalties that would be imposed under the latest policy.
The Chinese authorities have long been worried about the social consequences of the gender imbalance. "The increasing difficulties that men face in finding wives may lead to social instability," the government said in a report this month.
Despite the gender imbalance, China vowed that it would "firmly" continue its one-child policy, which has been in place for 33 years and has prevented an estimated 400 million births. Since the beginning of the policy, China has created a generation of "only" children who now number about 90 million.
In its latest statement, the government says the one-child policy is essential because of the "huge challenges" of the growing population. China has pledged to limit its population to 1.45 billion by 2020, compared with 1.3 billion today.
The government acknowledged this month that 60 percent of Chinese couples would prefer to have more than one child. But it said it has no intention of relaxing the one-child limit. It said the policy has helped boost China's economic development.
