CHINA:Sex-selection abortion means newborn boys outnumber girls eight to five in parts of China, posing a threat to social stability. However, the government is expected to introduce laws to help even up the gender gap.
A report by the China Family Planning Association said the island province of Hainan had 136 newborn boys for every 100 girls.
Nationwide the figure is 119 to 100, but the most serious imbalance in the country was in Lianyungang, in eastern Jiangsu province, where the ratio is 165 boys to 100 girls.
There are 37 million more men than women in China, which is the most unbalanced gender ratio in the world. This skewed ratio has worsened since China introduced the one-child policy 30 years ago to curb population growth, making abortion a widely used method of family planning.
The gender gap raises the prospect of millions of men unable to find a wife, risking antisocial and violent behaviour. There are already 18 million more men than women of marriageable age.
The restriction has cemented traditional preferences for boys, particularly in the countryside, where families favour sons believing they are better able to provide for the family and support their elderly parents.
Gender scanning of the foetus is illegal in China but the regulation does not spell out punishments and a large black market flourishes, with a scan typically priced at €5 if the child is a boy and €3 if it is a girl.
"Several laws and regulations on family planning have been listed on the state council's legislative plan for 2007, including the regulation to ban sex-selection abortion. There are still risks of fertility rate rebound in China. Gaps exist between people's attitudes towards child bearing and China's existing laws on family planning," said one official.
According to the UN, the gender ratio should be around 107:100. Beijing reckons that since the one-child policy began, China has prevented more than 400 million births.