So, a friend of mine posted this article on Facebook tonight about the shifting demographics in China, and how so many young men are finding themselves without wives due to less women their age. You can read the story below:
http://blogs.forbes.com/china/2011/05/13/chinas-growing-problem-of-too-many-single-men/
I often try to avoid any type of political discussion (and I do consider this political) but this issue does affect my family, so I had to share.
The one thing that I think this article is lacking is the fact that it is not just the one-child policy itself that is causing the shift, but the continued preference for boys over girls in those families that can only have one child. I am a mother due to that policy. So many girls were being abandoned in hopes of having a boy, or due to the inability of the parents to raise a child. If China is going to continue to treat their females as inferior, or continue to seriously penalize families for having more than one child, then the problem can only continue to worsen.
When we adopted Maya from China in 2005, we only had a six-month wait to get our referral. The wait is now FIVE YEARS. Reasons that have been given include the increase in domestic adoption within China and the slowing of children that are abandoned. But could it be more than that? Could it be that China realized that the number of girls that were being adopted out internationally was starting to play havoc on those demographics?
I really try not to bash China because of their policies and human rights issues. After all, they allowed me to adopt one of their own (and I couldn't be MORE thankful). But I really do think the country needs to take a long look at these issues and make some serious changes to ward off the unintended consequences that this one-child policy has created.
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