China Faces Bride Shortage: How Can China Stave Off Bride Shortage?

China Faces Bride Shortage: How Can China Stave Off Bride Shortage?

China is doing very well economically but fairing very badly socially. Forget urinating in escalators, loud clearing of throats and spitting in public, there is a new social bomb ticking. Bride shortage!

Yesterday it overtook Germany as the leading commodity exporter in the world but soon, she will be importing brides for her male population.

More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses by 2020, says the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

It cites sex-specific abortions as a major factor, due to China's traditional bias towards male children. The academy says gender selection abortions are "extremely common". This is especially true in rural areas, and ultra-sound scans, first introduced in the late 1980s, have increased the practice.

The latest figures show that for every 100 girls born in China, 119 boys are born, the academy says in a new book.

Researcher Wang Guangzhou, quoted by the Global Times newspaper, said the implications were that men in poorer parts of China may remain single throughout their life.

"The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40-years. In some provinces, 130 boys are born for each 100 girls, the book says.

Experts at the academy also predict the gender imbalance will lead to more inter-generational marriages, where a wife is older than her husband.

These statistics are very grim and it is unfortunate that China would not turn to her almost equally populous neighbor, India, for brides. They are in a big bride shortage mess themselves. The exorbitant dowry paid for girls in India has ensured that girls are aborted just like in China.

What should China do to stave off the bride shortage?

Of late, UAE and other Asian countries have resorted to leasing huge tracts of land in Africa to farm so as to feed their populations back home. The logic is that food will be one of the most expensive commodities in years to come. China should also contract African couples to bear and raise girls to be married off by unlucky males in China. A new export business that will be dubbed ‘contract parenting’ will sprout in Africa and will boost foreign exchange earnings in Africa as well as curb trade imbalances.

It will kill more than one stone for China by blending Chinese genes thus improving height, size and shape of eyes, facial features and mannerisms. There is no downside except Africans may sow seeds of laziness, corruption and Christianity in China.

With today’s globalization and cybermarriages, who is gonna worry about shortage of brides in one’s village?