China's perennial bachelor syndrome stumps Xi

China's skewed sex ratio resulting in millions of men to remain bachelors continues to be a major problem as Chinese President Xi Jinping found to his chagrin that while rural development schemes made villages prosper, marriage eluded their ageing men.
During his meeting with lawmakers from Hunan province here yesterday Xi inquired the progress of tailor-made schemes to remove poverty in a remote village he visited in 2013.
After inquiring about the increase in the village's per capita income, Xi asked, "How many of the single men there got married last year? Only Seven out of 20, Guo Jianqun, a lawmaker from an ethnic minority group told the perplexed President amid laughter from her fellow lawmakers.

Guo said the village has more than 20 men who are considered far above a prime age for marriage, as few women there wanted to wed due to poverty, state-run China Daily reported.
Shibadong, a mountainous village that is home mainly to the Miao ethnic group, has suffered poverty due to a severe shortage of arable land and poor transportation.
Xi also general secretary of the ruling Communist Party had visited the village in 2013 and asked the local government to help it to alleviate poverty through tailor-made measures.

Xi said it was the first place where he had raised the concept of targeted poverty alleviation.

Since then, the village has become more prosperous, with its per capita income more than doubling through fruit processing and tourism development.
The "single men" has remained a major problem all over China due to skewed sex ratio.
As per 2014 official figures, there were 115.88 boys born for every 100 girls. Roughly about 34 million Chinese males had to either to find brides outside the country or remain life-long bachelors.
According to latest figures, China had population of 1.37 billion at the end of 2015, up 6.8 million from the end of 2014.
The skewed sex ratio was attributed to sex-selective abortion to have male children. Like elsewhere in Asia, Chinese people in general believe male heirs can ensure their families' bloodline is preserved.

To combat the problem in the world's most populous nation, China has started a clampdown on illegal prenatal gender tests and sex-selective abortions to address the gender-ratio imbalance.