China's Military Problem

In the 1970's the world began to realize that China had a serious overpopulation problem. As an "easy fix" China began enforcing it's one child policy in the early '80's. Aside from the obvious fact that it's attempt to control the family unit in such a way was one of China's most socialist moves, the world seemed to be fine with putting limits on how many kids Chinese people could have...excpet everyone seemed to forget (or not care) about the intense gender bias that has been especially present in China since the rise of the Song Dynasty in 960 AD.

Since the installation of China's one child policy, the population has become extremely imbalanced.  In naturally occurring conceptions and births, there are usually 103 males for every 100 females. Although the gender ratio is not perfectly balanced, it doesn't even come close to the 130 males for every 100 females that exists in China because of the cultural importance on masculinity, continuing the family name, and the countless perceived benefits of having boys instead of girls. Today in China, there are currently 32 million more boys under the age of twenty than girls. 32 million. That is almost the entire population of California, the most populous state in the US.


So how does this translate to a weaker Chinese military? The policy that was installed almost 30 years ago, it just now bearing fruit. Many young men in China (and other gender biased cultured like India) are experiencing the "little prince" syndrome. A majority of kids have been used to being coddled for so long, that they don't know what to do when they arrive at basic training. They do not take orders well, cannot complete missions, and often complain about the physical challenges. Of course this problem of "whiney recruits" is nothing new to China or any other country for that matter, but not nearly in such a significant way as China has recently been experiencing. The People's Liberation have reported that about half of men in training brake down crying on a daily basis. Weaker men translates to a weaker army, and in light of the world's current state, I do not think it is smart for a powerhouse like China to be unprepared in it's defense and offense.

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/01/24/one-child-policy-one-big-problem-china-245118.html