70 million men in China are currently unable to find wives due to a staggeringly high imbalance of males vs. females.

Men outnumber women as a result of the country's one-child policy which leads to many female foetuses being aborted as girls are traditionally discriminated against....

The traditional Chinese thinking that men are more valuable than women has dominated the country for many centuries. Some rural people just dump their baby girls outside orphanages, Ms Pan said.

The minister said 99 per cent of Chinese children adopted by foreigners were girls. There were millions more boys under the age of 10 than girls of the same age group.

'Although the Chinese government has banned gender selection of newborn babies by ultrasound and selective induced abortion, many doctors secretly provide such services for extra fees, sometimes as high as 1,000 yuan,' Xinhua said. One thousand yuan works out to S$213.

In a country where getting married and raising a family is all-important, this situation is a catastrophe for the millions of men who will not find wives. It reflects an attitude that goes way back in China's history, and reading Wild Swans last month drove home to me just how horrific it can be for women. (I still cringe whenever I think of the author's detailed descriptions of what foot binding actually encompasses.)