China's 30 year-old population planning of only one child, has led to an established preference for boys, as they are more productive on the farm, able to care for their parents in their old age and entitled to receive an inheritance. One 38 year- old China man said, "It doesn't matter how much money you have. If you don't have a son, you are not as good as other people who have one".
Girl children remain unwanted and regularly disposed of, or abandoned. Enforced abortion and sterilization became a normal part of living.
800,000 baby girls were abandoned or killed, in just one region, from 1971-80 alone. These numbers need to be multiplied by a further two generations, plus a dozen or more areas, taking the figure of missing girls into the tens of millions. The population planning is said to have decreased the population growth by 250 million, but it comes at an horrific price.
Now China has one of the biggest male-to-female ratios in the world. The 2005 census revealed an over supply of 32 million males under the age of 25. That