I just ran across an article that shows how severe of a problem the gender imbalance in China has become.
There may be a surplus of up to 30 million men, who will be unable to find a woman to marry. With so many frustrated men, there may even be social instability.
This tells me the evils of traditional Confucian belief system, which emphasizes male supremacy and marriage/family. The male supremacy, combined with the one-child policy, means that many female fetuses are aborted. And since Confucianism does not consider a person a full member of the society until married, there will be a huge underclass of leftover men who will not be able to function properly in society.
This also shows a huge difference in the ways of thinking between the East and the West; while abortion is seen as an issue of women's reproductive rights in the West, it is seen as a means of population control - and a way to reinforce the prevailing male supremacy - in the East. While I'm firmly in the pro-choice camp, I am completely against gender-based abortions.
I've read elsewhere that this may result in a horde of Chinese bachelors taking wives from neighboring nations like Vietnam, and spreading the problem throughout the Asian continent. I hope not.
MSNBC
