Tuesday 16 February 2010
A tradition that has no place in modern China
The one-child policy may have reined in China’s population growth but it has done nothing to change the preference for sons deeply rooted in traditional culture. And an official crackdown on fetal sex determination and sex-selective abortion has had limited impact, as evidenced by Hong Kong’s emergence as a mainland birth hub since a landmark Court of Final Appeal ruling gave permanent resident status to children born in Hong Kong of mainland parents.
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A tradition that has no place in modern China
12 February 2010
The one-child policy may have reined in China’s population growth but it has done nothing to change the preference for sons deeply rooted in traditional culture. And an official crackdown on fetal sex determination and sex-selective abortion has had limited impact, as evidenced by Hong Kong’s emergence as a mainland birth hub since a landmark Court of Final Appeal ruling gave permanent resident status to children born in Hong Kong of mainland parents.
With mainland mothers now accounting for more than 40 per cent of births in Hong Kong, the city’s male-to-female sex ratio at birth has surged from 106.4 to 100 in the 1990s to 109.8 in 2005 and 113.6 in 2008. A study by three hospital obstetricians and gynaecologists, published recently in the Journal of Perinatal Medicine, shows that for the third or subsequent baby born to mainland mothers, the male sex ratio reached 174.5, compared with 118.4 for local mothers.
There aren’t many ways to read this research: it seems clear many mainland mothers come to Hong Kong to learn the sex of their babies. Sadly, the specialists noted that some cancel birth bookings on learning they are expecting a girl.
The preference for sons has serious implications. Population researchers have estimated that by 2005 the mainland had 32 million more males under 20 than females. If that is true, predictions of 40 million men without partners by 2020 do not sound exaggerated.
This will exert new pressures on the Communist Party’s overarching goal of social harmony and stability.
Experience elsewhere has shown how unsettled, frustrated young men are more receptive to radical politics and contribute to higher crime rates. If they reach old age without the support of a family network they add to the growing social security burden of a greying population under the one-child policy.
Conscious that the gender imbalance carries the seeds of social disaster and economic problems, the mainland authorities have launched a campaign to enhance women’s social status as well as cracking down on non-medical sex determination and selective abortion. If Hong Kong’s experience of the resilience of the tradition is any guide, the aim of achieving a normal sex ratio at birth by the 2020s is looking a more distant prospect.
It is on moral grounds above all, however, that the authorities should step up their efforts. The persistence, and unofficial tolerance, of abuse of medical technology for sex selection, selective abortion and fatal neglect of girl babies strikes a jarring contrast with censorious policing of the internet to protect young minds from unhealthy “Western” influences such as pornography. Though rooted in history, a tradition that gives rise to such repugnant practices has no place in a modern China that commands respect on the world stage. This kind of outdated thinking denies the equality of male and female lives. Leaving aside right-to-life arguments, the researchers rightly observe that high male sex ratios deprive female fetuses of a chance at life.
Cultural practices are not easily regulated. But women’s role in society can be enhanced to raise their economic potential as breadwinners and supporters of the older generation. Mao Zedong famously said that women hold up half the sky. The current leadership should heed that, redouble their efforts to lift women’s status and adopt more sophisticated population and family planning policies.
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