QotD: Gender Imbalances in China

[. . .] in the east the so-called guang gun — "bare branches": since China introduced its "one child" policy in 1978, the imbalance between the sexes has increased to the point where there are 119 boys for every 100 girls, the most gender-distorted demographic cohort in history. The pioneer generation of that 20 per cent male surplus is reaching manhood now. Asked about this on the radio a year or two back, I suggested that maybe China's planning on becoming the first gay superpower since Sparta, and promptly received a ton of indignant emails.

Mark Steyn, "The future is spelled C-H-I-N-A", Macleans, 2006-05-26