"China's Unwanted Men"
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BREAKPOINT DAILY TRANSCRIPT
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Don’t Mess with the Moral Order
China’s Unwanted Men
July 14, 2008
In late June an angry crowd, estimated at 10,000 people, set fire to a government building
and police cars in southwestern China. More than 150 people were injured, and it took 1,500
paramilitary and riot police to restore a semblance of order.
The crowd was protesting the “alleged cover-up of a teenage girl’s rape and murder” by
three young men, including the “son of a local politician.”
While news agencies cited the incident as an example of unrest over corruption and
injustices, there is another Chinese problem highlighted in this story: “China’s
testosterone problem.”
That’s the term the NEW REPUBLIC used to characterize the social problems caused by the
male-female imbalance in China. As writer Mara Hvistendahl tells us, China “has the largest
gender imbalance in the world . . .” There are 37 million more men than women in China; and
“almost 20 percent more newborn boys than girls nationwide.” In some parts of China, there
are 60 percent more male children than female!
The imbalance is the product of China’s infamous “one-child policy,” in which the
government told villagers, and I quote, “YOU CAN BEAT IT OUT! YOU CAN MAKE IT FALL OUT!
YOU CAN ABORT IT! BUT YOU CANNOT GIVE BIRTH TO IT!”
Many villagers complied, but with a twist: They made sure that the “one child” would be a
boy, who could earn more than girls could. As a result, a researcher at the Chinese
Institute for Social Sciences estimates that 10 percent of Chinese men will be unable to
find wives.
Of course, frustrated men will make their presence felt, as Beijing is learning. After the
first generation of “one child” boys hit adolescence, China’s juvenile crime rate more than
doubled. Chinese officials complained about young men committing crimes “without specific
motives, often without forethought.”
Sound familiar? History teaches us that unattached, unmarriageable males are
“disproportionately responsible for drug abuse, looting, vandalism, and violent crime.”
This was true of “frontier towns,” “immigrant ghettos,” and our own inner-cities. There is
no reason to think that China will be any different.
And the worst is yet to come as the imbalance grows larger. Government officials worry
about the “hidden threat to social stability” posed by a cohort of “hopeless, volatile
men.” Wars have often started, historically, when men tried to find wives elsewhere.
But the best the government can come up with are slogans like, “Boys and Girls are both
treasures.” Meanwhile young Chinese men gather in bars where they pay $15 a minute to
assault the waiters. Yes, you heard me correctly. Even more ominously, if the customer
prefers, the waiter will dress in women’s clothing. No wonder ordinary Chinese are worried
for the safety of their daughters!
It is hard to find a better example of the consequences that arise from defying the moral
order that God has written into His creation. China thought it could create a harmonious
society where every child was wanted; now unwanted men threaten its very stability.
China fears its own sons and worries about its daughters all because it followed a false
worldview, ignoring God’s design.
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