Both China and Taiwan have been mentioned by world demographic experts as having skewed sex ratios because of the deeply rooted preferences for sons in Chinese societies. Other Asian countries, such as South Korea and Singapore, also have an unusually high proportion of male births.

In its latest issue, the Economist said that gender imbalance has become a hidden worry in many areas around the world.

Before the 1980s in all societies that record births, between 103 and 106 boys were normally born for every 100 girls, compared to a ratio of 108 for the generation born in China between 1985 and 1989.

That has fundamentally changed in the past two decades. Partly as the consequence of China’s one-child policy and partly because of cheap sex-selective abortions, more than 120 boys have been born in recent years in China for every 100 girls.

This rate was biologically impossible without human intervention. According to an estimate made by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, about 100 million baby girls have been aborted or killed upon birth around the world.

Skewed sex ratios are seen as triggering many social problems in the foreseeable future. In a society where one in four young men will be unable to find a bride because of the dearth of young women, the single men will unavoidably suffer from frustration in their sexual and family lives.

To tackle the gender imbalance issue over the long run, we must start by changing the thinking and attitudes of parents. The Chinese must get rid of their favoritism toward males and free themselves from the idea that their son will take care of them when they are old.

Taiwan has a sex ratio at birth of roughly 110 males to 100 females. Fortunately, a family planning program touting the slogan “two children are just right” has been in place in Taiwan over the past four decades, without a mandatory “one child” policy or any inhuman methods to keep girls from being born. (March 14, 2010)

(By Deborah Kuo)

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