Comments on: Bonfire of the Little Girls

By: Zen

Zen — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 05:11:59 +0000

A war would do little to threaten people, illogical as it sounds. Having a son is a specific thing they want, while war is general and uncertain. After all, their son might come back a hero, or at least alive. Oh, for sure, real war is even more uncertain than that, but how many of us have really been though that?

By: Adam Greenwood

Adam Greenwood — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:34:36 +0000

Of all the possible resolutions of our debt to China, actually doing something to pay it off is among the least likely.

By: Bookslinger

Bookslinger — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:34:52 +0000

Another way to work off American debt: “Here, take care of these old people.”

By: Vader

Vader — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:17:10 +0000

That’s an interesting point, John. So long as there’s any chance at all of the son eventually marrying, there will be strong opposition from the parents to using him as cannon fodder.

Of course, the question is whether that opposition can be expressed effectively in a totalitarian regime. Especially if the son himself sees life in the military as more attractive than being single outside the military.

By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:08:03 +0000

I shall restate: all those young Chinese men, to a first-order approximation, are the offspring of parents who have no other offspring. Their loss to warfare would be problematic an a personal family basis and on a national demographic basis in a way that it would’t for a people without an inverted population pyramid.

By: Bookslinger

Bookslinger — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:02:46 +0000

Correction: 3rd graph above, “Also, those families ‘stuck’”, should read “Also, some of those families ‘stuck’”.

By: Bookslinger

Bookslinger — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:00:37 +0000

John M., no, not “all” the excess males are children. The one-child policy started in 1979. I don’t know how the distribution goes by year, but the oldest cohort is now 31-32. Nor do I know at what age the average Chinese man gets married these days. Supposing it’s age 25, then you would have the unmarried 25-31 age group “realizing” they were “surplus”. I think I remember reading somewhere that their term is “dead branch.” When that realization is made, the young man is ripe to be used as cannon-fodder.

The first article I linked to states that by 2020, there will be 30 million “surplus” men of marriagable age (let’s assume that starts at age 21) up to age 41 (to include those born in 1979.) I’m not sure how to work the numbers to extrapolate that back to how many there are _now_, but I’m estimating at least 10 million (of age 21 and over) today.

Another strange item: in order to comply with the 1-child policy, many families have shipped off (sold off?) their “unreported” girls to work in countries all along the Pacific rim, before the girl reaches the age when she must be registered to the Chinese government in order to enter the work-force.

Also, those families “stuck” with a girl child (duly reported and registered with the gov’t as a child), their one-and-only child, believing she won’t be able to support them in their old age, have sold such daughters to human traffickers, and many of those young women are “working off” their smuggling debt in Chinese restaurants all along the Pacific rim. In fact, you can find them in many of the larger Chinese buffet restaurants all around the US. If you find some who can’t speak English (other than restaurant vocabulary), you’ve probably met some of the ones I’m talking about.

I also have my suspicions about the many “Chinese Massage” storefronts that are popping up around the US, employing young adult females who can’t speak English. I once had a chair-massage in the middle of an indoor shopping mall. When I realized the girl couldn’t speak English, I realized the pattern was similar to what I encounter at some of the larger Chinese buffet restaurants. (Smaller places employ just family members, it’s the larger ones that have to hire non-family.)

By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:20:59 +0000

Bear in mind, all those young Chinese men are only children. That makes then a bit less dispensable.

By: Bookslinger

Bookslinger — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:12:19 +0000

This is not new news. And, just so the links are handy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1265068/China-The-worlds-new-superpower-beginning-century-supremacy-alarming-surplus-males.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8229789/China-preparing-for-armed-conflict-in-every-direction.html

By: Zen

Zen — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 03:50:26 +0000

Ahh…. but we are talking about China here. Although it seems strange to us, they don’t have the same kind of access to filth that we do. If they did, you might have a point… But the spirit of immorality that grips the world today, in combination with zero outlets, and a gender imbalance is a politically explosive situation. IMHO.