China faces population imbalance crisis

China will be short of 30 million brides within 15 years, according to an official report into the country’s burgeoning population. About one in every ten men aged between 20 and 45 - equivalent to almost the population of Canada - will be unable to find a wife, it has projected.

The findings, from the State Population and Family Planning Commission, outline bleak prospects not only for bachelors. The report says that the inevitable gender imbalance could result in social instability - a threat that the ruling Communist Party regards as the greatest risk to its grip on power.

It is nearly three decades since China’s rulers implemented a strict "one-couple, one-child" family planning policy. It replaced Chairman Mao’s focus on a high birth rate, which had been intended to ensure that China could fend off enemies with human-wave warfare. The unintended consequences of this draconian birth control have become increasingly pronounced.