While China has reported a drop in its birth and fertility rates, the number of male babies is growing, illustrating the preference for boys. 8 boys (The brand new Washington Article 22 Apr. 1993, 1; Xinhua 21 Apr. 1993). The natural world average is considered to be about 106 boys born for every 100 girls (The newest York Minutes 17 June 1991), and Chinese figures for first-born infants are fairly normal. The imbalance appears to occur in later births. Presumably this is because «couples will accept a daughter if it is their first child, because they expect that they can find a way legally or illegally to have another child» (Ibid.). On the whole, males account for 51.7 per cent of the population in China (The world and you will Post 28 Nov. 1990, A12).
The new Washington Blog post 22 Apr. 1993, 1; The new York Times 17 June 1991). The China Reports Investigation reports that the number of unregistered or so-called «black children» has taken on disturbing proportions. The practise is sometimes carried out with the help of local cadres who want to cover up the «real situation» (15 Apr. 1991, 1). Zeng Yi, a leading Chinese demographer, also makes note of the availability of ultrasound equipment in Chinese hospitals which makes it easier to determine whether a fetus is male or female. «If it is a female, they get an abortion and start all over» (The New York Times 25 Apr. 1993, 12).
cuatro.3 Abduction and you will Selling of females
The abduction and the sale of women is on the rise in China. These practises, which occurred in traditional Chinese society, have seen a resurgence in part as a result of the economic reform programme which has loosened strict communist moral controls at the same time that it has unleashed a long-repressed profit motive (Reuters 11 July 1991). Many of the abducted women are mentally retarded or young girls and are mainly taken from poor, remote mountainous villages in such provinces as Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou. However, the China Youth Every day has reported that «slave trading was found in every province» (qtd. in Reuters 11 July 1991). Women are kidnapped and then sold to richer farmers as wives or concubines; they are also beaten and raped, or gang raped, while in the hands of slave traders (UPI 8 Mar. 1993; Asia News Data 1 May 1991, 4). The practise has become so widespread that abducted women can now be found in rural areas near Beijing and in the capital itself (This new Washington Post 21 June 1992a, 1).
Perhaps, the early imbalance on sex-ratio is not only for the reason that women infanticide during the poor and you will backwards regions, and you may abortions away from unwanted girls, and in addition of the unreported births off baby girls (
Other factors cited in the increase in abductions and sales of females are the growing shortage of women (The fresh Ottawa Citizen 5 Oct. 1992) and the increase in the cost of betrothal gifts, which are still a part of marriage customs in modern rural China (The new China Quarterly June 1992, 325). The new Christian Technology Display reports that in rural China the exorbitant cost of a formal wedding has made it cheaper to buy a woman than to marry one (5 Aug. 1992). One man who could not spend the US$2,000 required for a respectable marriage in Xiaodian reportedly paid US$200 to a matchmaker instead for a young bride from Sichuan Province (Ibid.).
Current official statistics on the abduction and sale of women are difficult to obtain. China reports at least 10,000 cases of rural women being abducted and sold each year (Ibid.). A census in rural China uncovered hundreds of abducted women who had been sold to men in Pingshan County, Hebei Province, in 1992 (Reuters 15 Mar. 1993). Another source reports that between 1982 and 1987, 5 melhores sites legГtimos de namoro em Hong Kong,700 women were sold to local men in what in the article is described as S. County (in the central plains of China) (People Legal rights Tribune July 1990, 11). The report details the futility of attempted escapes by the victims:
