By Dave Andrusko

It has become almost acceptable to acknowledge the  obvious: China is facing massive social dislocations caused by a gigantic imbalance between the number of men and the number of women. What isn’t as readily acceptable is to trace the imbalance (119 boys for every 100 females, and a ratio as high as 130 males for every 100 females in some areas) to sex-selection abortion. But the latest round of stories could not avoid the enormous impact of ultrasound/abortion because a report from a government-backed Academy said so!

There’s been a rash of stories over the past couple of days because of a report issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Sphere.com began its account with this lead sentence: “More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without a woman to wed by 2020, and a Chinese proclivity to abort female fetuses is a major contributing factor, a major study has found.” Paraphrasing from story from the Global Times, Sphere.com wrote, “Gender imbalance among newborns is the most serious demographic problem facing the country's population of 1.3 billion.”

The report itself acknowledges the obvious: "Sex-specific abortions remained extremely commonplace," the Academy wrote, "especially in rural areas.” Ultrasound scans were once very expensive and essentially not available in rural areas, but no longer.

According to one researcher interviewed by the Global Times,  “Men living in less-prosperous areas of China could find themselves marrying later in life or remaining unmarried all their lives.”

Worse yet, citing the National Population and Family Planning Commission, the Global Times said that abductions and trafficking of women were "rampant" in areas with excess numbers of men.

Of course it is not only the impact and availability of ultrasound technology (even when combined with the traditional preference for males) that explains the Chinese dilemma. As AFP reports gingerly, beginning in 1979 China initiated its (massively coercive) population control policy.

That policy was characterized by forced abortions (especially if the first child was a girl) and involuntary sterilization. Female infanticide was by no means unheard of.

Just two months ago, a panel of human rights activists testified at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission  about how the Chinese government is abusing women and up-ending the traditional Chinese family. U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ), Ranking Member of the Commission who chaired the hearing said, “It is outrageous that the Obama Administration lavishly funds—to the tune of $50 million—organizations, including the U.N. Population Fund, that partner with China’s National Population Planning Commission.”

Smith also told the commission, “Few people outside China understand what a massive and cruel system of social control the one-child policy entails.” He added, “As the U.S. China Commission summarized, the system is “marked by pervasive propaganda, mandatory monitoring of women's reproductive cycles, mandatory contraception, mandatory birth permits, coercive fines for failure to comply, and, in some cases, forced sterilization and abortion.”

Please send your thoughts and comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.