Social reasons for baby boy bias must be eliminated

STATISTICS FROM THE HEILONGJIANG provincial bureau of statistics indicate that the gender ratio at birth last year in some of its counties was far beyond the 107:100 upper limit of the normal range. For instance, the male to female ratio at birth in Tongjiang county in the province hit 116.9:100. China Youth Daily comments:

The unbalanced sex ratio at birth in Tongjiang, which cannot be justified by any natural causes, should have rung alarm bells, as such a wide gender gap will necessarily sow the seeds for a range of difficult social issues in the foreseeable future.

In fact, the problem is not only limited to the northeastern province, as the latest statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics indicate the nationwide gender ratios of the 5-9 age group and 0-4 age group were 118.55:100 and 114.52:100, respectively, in 2017.