China Faces Bride Shortage

At present, China has a population of around 1.3 billion. That is expected to reach at least 1.6 billion within the next 4 decades. China needed to curb their ever exploding population right from the 1980s. The government felt that the country would not be able to support the population if it kept increasing at the rate it did. So around 3 decades ago, China's Communist Party introduced the 1-child policy. Couples in cities were prohibited from having more than 1 child, unless neither parent had siblings. In the rural areas, the law is different, and it allows for a 2nd child but under some circumstances. Also for ethnic minorities the law is not so tight.

Now these policies managed to put some brakes on China's population explosion, and it is believed that as a result, China was successful in preventing around 400 million births. While this seems to be a decent achievement, it came with another problem attached to it. Due to the 1-child policy, couples preferred to have a male heir to their family. This led to abortion of female fetuses. As a result, now there is such a noticeable imbalance in the sex ratio, that this decade will have millions of males, but no females to marry. Yes! In the next 10 years, around 200 million Chinese people will enter the child-bearing age. And by 2020, nearly 25 million Chinese men will not be able to find wives for themselves, due to the sex ratio imbalance.

Now this problem will lead to another trend, inter-generational marriages. The young men will have to look for older women, or even look to other nationalities to marry. There has been a lot of talk and proposing of changing the family planning law in China. But Zhang Weiqing, a minister in China has already said long back, "Abandoning the policy during this period would cause "serious problems and add extra pressure on social and economic development. After the new birth peak ends, we may adjust the policy if there is a need."

So it looks like the women in China can be picky about whom they choose as their husbands, at least for a decade or so more!