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Q: The biggest threat to China's future?
Gender imbalance? Desperate single men who can't find a wife because of this phenomenon and decide to stab other people's children for revenge (yep stupid I know) are already not so uncommon, it probably happen on a daily basis but not covered, like factory workers' riots, and those children are the future of China.
By 2015 there will be between 30 (official statistics) and 40 (NGOs estimations) millions men in China who can't ever hope to find a bride, who can't ever satisfy their fundamental biological imperative.
40 millions desperate men in a country of 1.4 billion, seeking a meaning to their life.
IMHO the biggest threat is the fuerdai kids that live like rockstars on their parent's money but never learn how to run the business that they will one day inherit. Their parents build a profitable business but the kids only know how to spend money. It makes sense that in 20+ years that businesses will be run to the ground by this attitude of the children and they will go from second generation rich to having children that are first generation poor.
I have witnessed this already in my wife's hometown. Her grandparents generation lived on dirt floors, her parent's generation became rich overnight and now several of her friends are back to being poor due to having a lavish lifestyle and having to work for someone else.
you forgot to include all the wealthy men who have mistresses, and thereby reduce the number of available single women even more.
and foreign guys - you're stealing 'their' women too 
(bad foreigners, it is all their fault)
Girls and women being kidnapped has been documented as happening already as more women leave the poorer western provinces, not to mention the women trafficked in from surrounding countries.
I suspect assaults on women will increase, especially in cities where there are migrant workers too poor even to afford prostitutes.
This combined with an increase in 'princesses' whose families will demand a 'rich' husband will do nothing to help the millions of men at the bottom end of society.
if you factor in as well the 'traditional' attitude many Chinese guys have about marriage, they would not be considered an attractive prospect for educated foreign women.
this is a time bomb waiting to happen that only maybe a well-engineered plague or war will solve.
Stiggs:
Edit: You also forgot all the girls over about 27 who aren't married and who no guy will look at now because she's too old.
It actually may be good for China in a way. If guys here need to ... lift their ways a little.. because no girl will marry a boorish, selfish manboy then that has to be good for society.
RiriRiri:
The gender issue is a 3 dimensional issue. You never really understand it until you add in the social class in the equation. And this is true everywhere in the world.
Oh totally gonna be a huge problem.
I bet there is a certain poetic justice to it, as likely the most poor, ignorant and least competitive families were the ones who disproportionately aborted those girls. The sons they wanted now being the uncompetitive losers of modern china.
gouxiong:
Not sure if the gender imbalance is really going to become such a big problem but in any case I love and share your comment about 'life irony' as I also think that China society makes girls in average more capable than boys.
expatlife26:
Well I don't mean to say it's going to be a catastrophe, but it could drive up certain things like unrest, rape, lawlessness etc.
You get these poor sons of bitches from the countryside whose parents are none too bright themselves, they have no prospects to ever make any decent money, no hope of getting married or having a family so like wtf do they have to lose you know?
Show me an 18 year old that there statistically just isn't, nor will there EVER be a woman for and i'll show you a guy who is liable to do some crazy shit.
think about all the awful shit "nice guys" in the west say about women...now imagine that it's not just that they haven't figured out how to attract a woman but that the woman for them to attract simply doesn't exist. Feel bad for those guys and it's their stupid parents fault
I don't understand why the people here are still so obsessed with having boys. Unless you're living on a farm and want someone to work it for you when you can't ,boys are a liability I would have thought.
If you want a return on your investment girls are the way to go, they will be able to choose their husband from a lot of potentials. The girls also seem to be more capable from what I've seen and probably better able to get and hold a decent job later in life.
royceH:
My sentiments exactly!
And how about how girls put boys to shame in the classroom!
In fact, not only the classroom, in all walks of life in Chinese society.
So, thumbs up for Chinese females....the males need to take a long hard look at themselves.
expatlife26:
I always felt that feeling the girls here are much smarter is kinda overblown and subject to flattery. Like the girls here might be nicer to you (not you specifically stiggs cause I think you're a girl too) and speak better english but that's a lot of selection bias there.
There are tons of smart hardworking guys here, it's just that those ones didn't get placed into english major against their will cause of bad gaokao scores.
I've been on both sides of the tracks here, being a teacher and a financial analyst at a big firm, I used to think a lot of things like that too. The high achievers I work with are pretty evenly split between genders.
Theres this kinda teacher bubble that you can get stuck in that paints a pretty dimwitted picture of what this place can be like. Theres a lot of smart people here...maybe not a high % of the total but still a lot. But it's just why would the achievers be working in admin at training schools? or have chosen a less competitive major?
Don't get me wrong tons of total backwards retards here and it's really frustrating, but I do wanna stand up a little bit for chinese guys who I think get a really bad rap. Not totally undeservedly, but still.
expatlife26:
Oh and i forgot I wanted to add it's not like the girls here are all a bunch of einsteins either. They're smart and stupid at about the same rate guys are.
But then I never really understood the appeal of chinese women at all so maybe i'm biased against them. Who knows?
Lord_hanson:
It comes from when a daughter would leave her family household after marriage and live in the husbands household. She was considered to no longer be a part of her old family but part of her husbands family. At least that is where her loyalties were supposed to be. They also worry about losing their legacy or family name. I personally think that it doesn't matter but I am not a Chinese lao tai tai.
Robk:
@expatlife26 - I agree with you. The problem is that most men here are lazy as hell or have the little emperor syndrome like their parents owe them a living etc. They are also a lot more obnoxious which makes them look stupid lol.
Most females here seem to be harder working (not always smarter) but much more ambitious due to the new freedoms open up to them. However, females, are by far, the much more civilized and polite of the two.
It's definitely a lot of anguish and distress for the people here, but it's not strictly menacing.
I would be more worried about social climate as
* economy slows down here (what it's going to be in 5 years ? 10 years ?)
* population is getting older (who is going to pay for the care of old people ?)
* environment issues are there (who is going to pay for those cancers ? for the clean-up ? for the necessary adjustment in the industry ? drought ?)
IMHO the biggest threat is the fuerdai kids that live like rockstars on their parent's money but never learn how to run the business that they will one day inherit. Their parents build a profitable business but the kids only know how to spend money. It makes sense that in 20+ years that businesses will be run to the ground by this attitude of the children and they will go from second generation rich to having children that are first generation poor.
I have witnessed this already in my wife's hometown. Her grandparents generation lived on dirt floors, her parent's generation became rich overnight and now several of her friends are back to being poor due to having a lavish lifestyle and having to work for someone else.
-evil foreigners, especially (insert current distraction)!
-distabilising influences in the media because of lack of censorship
-anti socialist ideas
-lack of faith in the party
A problem yes. A big threat, no. Put aside the biggest threat.
Like any problem that touches society, there's always a carpet somewhere to hide it and let all of those who suffer (the poor) from it suffer in silence. They'll organize, maybe they'll have to share, maybe it will be gross, degrading, but that's okay, because it's not going to touch the upper layers of society (or it would already have kicked in by now).
The carpet? Oh, the carpet is bumpy, yes, very bumpy with the population aging, the pollution, expropriations, you name it. But this is the fantasy world of China where bumpy carpets are the standard, we were told so.
Burak43:
If the bumps get too large you're eventually gonna hit your head on the ceiling.
Recruiters.... Everything bad here goes back to those recruiters. Even when you identify them, and cut off a head, two heads show up in their place.
Sources: Echinacities CFTU knowledge database & Marvel's Agents of Shield
expatlife26:
All praise is due to The Leader and the honorable China Foreign Teacher's Union (CFTU)!
I'll just add "Parenting" to the list of threats to China... or lack hereof.
I forgot to mention MBP, Man Bear Pig. He is half man, half bear and half pig. I am super serial, why won't anyone listen to me?
bill8899:
You are not cereal enough. Get more cereal and people might listen.
