{"id":2388,"date":"2016-12-02T04:54:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T04:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=2388"},"modified":"2021-09-03T19:43:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T19:43:17","slug":"have-researchers-really-found-many-of-chinas-30-million-missing-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/have-researchers-really-found-many-of-chinas-30-million-missing-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Have Researchers Really “Found” Many of China’s 30 Million Missing Girls?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Baby

Baby rescued from gendercide by WRWF’s “Save a Girl” campaign<\/p><\/div>\n

Some girls may be hidden, but sex-selective abortion and abandonment are still very serious problems in China.<\/em><\/p>\n

An article came out in the Washington Post Wednesday entitled, \u201cResearchers may have \u2018found\u2019 many of China\u2019s 30 million missing girls.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 The researchers \u2013 John Kennedy of the University of Kansas and Shi Yaojiang of Shaanxi Normal University \u2013 argue that many of these girls \u201cmight not have been killed after all . . . [but] may, in fact, simply not have been registered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy states, “People think 30 million girls are missing from the population.\u00a0 That’s the population of California.” \u00a0Actually, the population of California\u00a0is not 30 million, but closer to 40 million (39,144,818 in 2015). This is more than a 30% difference — not an insignificant mistake for a demographer to make.<\/p>\n

Regardless of how many girls have been hidden rather than aborted or abandoned, we know that true gendercide also exists in China. Women are pressured to abort or abandon their babies just because they are girls — rather than simply hiding them. \u00a0Second daughters are particularly vulnerable. Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers<\/a> has boots on the ground in one area of rural China. Our “Save a Girl” Campaign<\/a> has saved hundreds of baby girls from abortion or abandonment, because they are girls.<\/p>\n

The idea that Chinese families sometimes hide an \u201cillegal\u201d child is not news. Daughters are hidden more often than sons, as son preference leads families to save their “hukou”<\/em> (household registration) for a boy.\u00a0 There is a level of uncertainty in the census numbers coming out of China, as families have an incentive to misrepresent the number of children they have, either to evade a forced abortion before the child is born, or to avoid paying crushing \u201cterror fines,\u201d which can reach 10 times a couple\u2019s annual salary, after the child is born. All of this is well established.<\/p>\n

When a child (usually a girl) is hidden, she will have no official existence — she will have no health care or access to education, for example.\u00a0 No one knows how many children exist without hukou<\/em> — illegal aliens in their own land. This is the reason that the man in Shaanxi quoted in the article referred to his illegal daughter as “the nonexistent one.” \u00a0I have long maintained that the hukou <\/em>system, which discriminates against girls, should be abolished.<\/p>\n

The idea that most if not all the 30 million missing women in China can be found among this illegal population, however, is improbable.\u00a0 Researcher Kennedy states, “If 30 million women are truly missing, then there’s going to be more males than females of marriageable age as they start looking for wives.” \u00a0Agreed.<\/p>\n

And of course, that’s exactly what’s happening, <\/strong>with the formation of “Bachelor Villages,” and the new law that Chinese women cannot marry men of a different race.\u00a0 Also, China is one of the worst countries in\u00a0terms of sexual slavery — driven by the gender imbalance,\u00a0according to the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report.<\/p>\n

According to the 2016 State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, China\u2019s gender imbalance, caused by the One Child Policy, is driving international human trafficking from the surrounding nations. This would not occur if 25 million women, hidden at birth, suddenly emerged 20 years later, at marriage age:<\/p>\n

Women \u00a0and \u00a0children \u00a0from \u00a0neighboring \u00a0Asian \u00a0countries,
\nAfrica, and the Americas are subjected to forced labor and
\nsex trafficking in China. North Korean women are subjected
\nto forced prostitution, forced marriage, and forced labor in
\nagriculture, domestic service, and factories. African and South
\nAmerican women are promised legitimate jobs in China and
\nforced into prostitution upon arrival. The Chinese government\u2019s
\nbirth limitation policy and a cultural preference for sons
\ncreate a skewed sex ratio of 117 boys to 100 girls in China,
\nwhich observers assert increases the demand for prostitution
\nand for foreign women as brides for Chinese men \u2013 both of
\nwhich may be procured by force or coercion. Women and
\ngirls are kidnapped or recruited through marriage brokers and
\ntransported to China, where some are subjected to prostitution
\nor forced labor.
\n<\/em>http:\/\/www.state.gov\/documents\/organization\/258878.pdf<\/a>, p. 130.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We know from our experience on the ground in rural China that many girls are not hidden, but dead. For example, we saved twin girls from abortion, because their father\u2019s family wanted only boys.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/june-1-childrens-day-china-should-stop-forced-abortion-and-gendercide\/<\/a><\/p>\n

We have found that second daughters are especially vulnerable to abortion or abandonment.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/give-thanks-by-saving-a-girl-in-china-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The It’s a Girl film<\/a> documents the practice of gendercide in China and India extensively.<\/p>\n

Even if some of China\u2019s 30 million missing girls and women are alive but hidden, there are still countless more that were selectively aborted or abandoned. We need to continue to fight gendercide in China. We need, moreover, to advocate for the end of the hukou<\/em> system, which disproportionally impacts girls and women.<\/p>\n

Related links:<\/p>\n

The Lonely Men of China\u2019s Bachelor Village 8\/28\/16<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-china-37192818<\/a><\/p>\n

China\u2019s Village of the Bachelors \u2013 no wives in sight in remote settlement 9\/2\/11<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2011\/sep\/02\/china-village-of-bachelors<\/a><\/p>\n

Interracial marriage in China illegal for women, but not for men 6\/13\/16<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.deseretnews.com\/article\/865656094\/Interracial-marriage-in-China-illegal-for-women-but-not-for-men.html?pg=all<\/a><\/p>\n

China\u2019s bride shortage causing a human trafficking surge in Vietnam 7\/1\/14<\/p>\n

http:\/\/shanghaiist.com\/2014\/07\/01\/chinas_bride_shortage_fosters_human.php<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some girls may be hidden, but sex-selective abortion and abandonment are still very serious problems in China. An article came out in the Washington Post Wednesday entitled, \u201cResearchers may have \u2018found\u2019 many of China\u2019s 30 million missing girls.\u201d\u00a0 The researchers … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[193,15,191,8,128,192,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinas-missing-girls","category-gendercide","category-john-kennedy","category-one-child-policy","category-sex-selective-abortion","category-shi-yaojiang","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2388"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3450,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions\/3450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}