For years, the census data in China has recorded a significant imbalance in the sex ratio toward the male population, meaning there are fewer women than men.
[7][8] Researchers found unreported females appear on government censuses decades later due to delayed registration, as families tried to avoid penalties when girls were born, which implies that the sex disparity was likely exaggerated significantly in previous analyses.
[15] China did not appear to be systematizing sex-selective fertilization or pre-conception practices; it was therefore assumed that 10% of female children go missing at some point after conception: whether in utero, or in early infancy.
[12] The causes of the high sex ratio in China result from a combination of strong son preference, the one-child policy, easy access to sex-selective abortion, food scarcity, and discrimination against and abuses of females.
This preference stems from several perceptions: sons are seen as the continuation of the family line, the offering of ancestor worship, and the main heir to the inheritance.
[22] Although Mao had considered economists' suggestions in the mid-1950s about the possible establishment of a nationwide family planning organization, he later returned to advocating rapid population growth during the Great Leap Forward.
[citation needed] Population control campaigns did not cover ground, however, until after 1971, when a number of voluntary measures, such as later marriage ages, fixed intervals of years between births, and a limit of two children, were advocated by the central government.
[23] The policy enacted a number of rules dictating the governmentally sanctioned composition of a Chinese family: each household was permitted one birth, and risked consequences ranging from fines to forced sterilization if they violated regulations.
[27] Chinese health authorities have characterized the gender imbalance among newborns as the "most severe and enduring" in the world, a direct consequence of the country's stringent one-child policy.
[29] One of the main factors that led to the creation of the One Child Policy was China's insurmountable food scarcity, which gave its government the authority to have unprecedented amounts of power over rural communities and their land ownership.
The government's control over land also decreased individual incentives to work hard, as the farmers could not make a profit from the crops they produced, consequently leading to large-scale starvation and a deepened divide between society's elite and its most vulnerable populations.
In September 1997, the World Health Organization's Regional Committee for the Western Pacific claimed that "more than 50 million women were estimated to be 'missing' in China because of the institutionalized killing and neglect of girls due to Beijing's population control program that limits parents to one child.
"[40] China's population control policy revealed strong, pre-existing cultural son preference, which broadened the disparity between comparative rates of male and female infanticide.
The Quan Han Shu mentions that no festivities were held when a daughter was born into a prosperous family, and that poor people did not even rear their female children.
[48] Under the one-child policy, some Chinese parents in rural areas abandoned their very young daughters in order to increase the possibility of raising a son.
[52] If they are not given support or taken care of within this period of time (e.g., some rural women do heavy farm work within zuò yuèzi), potential risks include health complications and early death.
[55] In attempt to really decrease the population, China's family planning policies actually emphasize birth control and many forms are available both in urban and rural areas for free.
[57] The National Population and Family Planning Commission did however oversee China's views by making improvements with the increased access to birth control, and also sex education.
[59][60][61] Since prenatal sex determination became available in the mid-1980s, China has witnessed large cohorts of surplus males who were born at that time and are now of marriageable age.
[19][40] Prenatal sex determination along with China's traditional preference for sons over daughters has left millions of men to compete over a limited number of brides, a phenomenon known as the marriage squeeze.
[21] There is also a possibility of these young men emigrating out of mainland China to other countries with more women (like Ukraine, Russia, and most of the West), if the problem continues to persist.
[68] One potential problem with a large number of wifeless men is that many millions of Chinese sex workers appear to represent a broad range of backgrounds.
[69] According to the police surgeon and municipal health officer for Shanghai, the spread of sexually transmitted infection has a close relationship with young unmarried men.
[73] Some researchers argue that son preference along with the one-child policy are one of the many contributing factors to an imbalanced sex ratio that has left millions of unmarried men unable to marry and start a family.
Even though the two-child policy is now in act, couples are still choosing to remain a single-child household due to expensive childcare and women's increasing hesitance to leave their careers to raise a family.
[76] Since females and males together are responsible for the social reproduction,[76] a shortfall of women will lead to a reduction in the number of current and future newborns, ultimately accelerating the aging problem in China.
Some scholars argue that, in the short term, declining fertility rates create an advantageous ratio of abundant producers to smaller populations who rely on that productivity (children, infants, pregnant women etc.).
[78] More emphasis has been placed on forming laws and regulations for women's economic status, education opportunities, inheritance of family property, willingness to marriage, and old-age supports.
[78] The results were also significant: a survey in 2007 showed that son preference had decreased in participating areas and the sex ratio at birth in the rural of Shanxi province fell from 135 in 2003 to 118 in 2007.
[18] In recent interviews, many young Chinese adults expressed the view that they do not care about the gender of their future child, even though son preference was common in their parents' generation.