‘Crisis’: China’s ‘leftover men’ drive sick trend online
This nation is experiencing a crisis, with reports tens of millions of men will be “doomed”. Now, many are resorting to extreme measures.
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China’s “leftover men” are getting desperate. So they’re turning to online catalogues to buy foreign brides.
It’s the inevitable outcome of decades of the Communist Party’s strictly enforced one-child policy.
Parents wanted to ensure they’d be financially secure in their old age. So they wanted sons.
The result?
By the early 2000s, there were 121 boys for every 100 girls.
Now, there’s a wife drought. And desperate and dateless Chinese men are turning to mail-order brides.
A ready-to-go spouse can be delivered to their door for an outlay of $A5000 to $A20,000.
“The growing demand for these brides, particularly in rural areas, has fuelled a rise in illegal marriages,” writes Lund University researcher Dr Ming Gao.
“This includes marriages involving children and women who have been trafficked into China primarily from neighbouring countries in South-East Asia.”
Marriages in China fell by 20 per cent last year – the most significant drop on record.
And it’s creating an era dubbed by Chinese social media users as shengnan shidai – “the time of leftover men”.
Between 2020 and 2050, some 30 to 50 million Chinese men will be doomed to bachelorhood for life.
It’s a crisis not lost on the Communist Party’s political class.
Last month, Chen Songxi, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), proposed that the legal marriage age be dropped from 22 to 18 to free up more eligible young women.
But the gears of bureaucracy grind slowly.
And the gender balance is most extreme among those born in the 1980s.
“This is due to the widespread use of ultrasound technology from the mid-1980s onward, which offered parents the ability to terminate pregnancies if their child was female,” explained Dr Gao.
Now they’re in their 40s, the clock is ticking on this cohort’s chances of raising a family.
“The question of who China’s leftover men will marry is becoming a pressing issue for Beijing,” he warned.
“The government’s response will shape the country’s future for decades to come.”
Race against time
China’s mail-order brides rarely know they’re destined to tie the knot.
Instead, Chinese headhunters scour remote communities in neighbouring countries with promises of well-paid jobs and trouble-free transits across the border.
“They find themselves at the mercy of the brokers once they reach China,” Dr Gao explained.
But a variety of get-a-bride-quick schemes are on offer.
“Chinese men (are) lured into extremely expensive ‘marriage tours’ abroad with promises of ‘affordable’ foreign wives,” he added.
Beijing is well aware of the implications of the bride crisis.
It is a looming collapse in the labour force and Communist Party membership.
But despite efforts to make divorce more difficult and incentivise child-rearing, the birthrate fall continues to be of concern.
And importing women remains unpalatable to the predominantly Han ethnic group that dominates the CCP’s ranks.
Most mail-order brides are being smuggled across borders from Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security has called for international assistance in tackling this human trafficking crisis.
And it’s resisting pressure to open the digital curtain up to a demographic-balancing wave of immigrants.
Instead, the Party hopes to find an alternative to raising a new generation.
It believes improved levels of education and automation will smooth over most labour shortages.
This means enormous investment in AI, robotics and automation.
“But, notwithstanding this, an even greater concern is the large number of leftover men, as this could pose a serious threat to social stability,” Dr Gao warned.
Chinese research has linked the skewed gender balance to rising crime. Especially when it comes to sexual harassment and assault.
History rhymes
China’s marriage crisis isn’t only about a lack of women.
“Urban Chinese women, in particular, are increasingly pushing back against traditional gender expectations, which emphasise marriage and child-bearing as essential life milestones,” Dr Gao added.
“Rising living costs are also making it increasingly difficult for many young people to afford to get married.”
It’s a common refrain across Europe, the Americas – and Australia.
“Australia is rarely not in a state of population panic,” argued Australian National University demographer Dr Liz Allen.
“Population panic once stemmed from being a small population in a big country vulnerable to external military attack. Now population panic is about the pace of growth being too great, due to immigration.”
Like China, Dr Allen said such debates encompass personal relationships, culture, economics – and politics.
“When we talk population, it’s pretty safe to read immigration,” she added.
And Australia’s been where China is.
“At the time of colonisation, the male-dominated imbalance in the colony sparked calls for more women from Britain – of suitable status – to help arrest high rates of hooliganism, drunkenness, and sexually transmitted infections,” Dr Allen continued.
“Women of standing were believed to help socialise the nation and provide essential children for nation building.”
But the population boom of the 1950s has long since peaked. The Australian birthrate in 2023 was 1.5 per woman. That’s well below the 2.1 needed to sustain a population.
“Simply, the local Australian population cannot meet the economic needs of the nation, and this has the potential to see living standards go backwards,” Dr Allen explained.
“Immigration helps offset the adverse consequences of an ageing population.”
And Australia’s birthrate has nothing to do with a lack of women.
It’s all about economics.
“Many Australians now won’t achieve their desired family size because contemporary life is simply not conducive to having children,” Dr Allen concluded.
“The barriers to having a child are now insurmountable for far too many. Housing affordability, gender inequality, financial insecurity and climate change make for an unstable and uncertain future.”
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
Originally published as ‘Crisis’: China’s ‘leftover men’ drive sick trend online
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