Thanks to its one-child policy introduced in 1970s, the Chinese Government acknowledged that it in less than 30 million more men of marriageable men than women resulting from a hard choice parents had to make to prefer male children.

Like in India, Chinese mothers abort girl fetuses based on sonogram tests even though such practices are illegal. However, unlike in India, it is the poor in the rural India that abort fetuses than the rich in the cities although this pattern seems to be spreading throughout China. Moreover, the jump has been recent as the number of boys to girls jumped from 110 to 100 in 2000 to 118 to 100 in 2005. Southern Guangdong and Hainan were the worst offenders with 130 boys to 100 girls. Even in Beijing, there are 109 boys to 100 girls.

Authorities are worried of social inequities and instabilities that could arise with so many million men unable to find spouses, especially in the impoverished and repressed countryside where China’s 800 million people (of the total 1.3 billion) reside. Some experts recommend the creation of social security systems which could encourage parents to continue having their girl child.

The average in developed industrialized nations is between 104-107 boys to 100 girls.