A consequence of China's social engineering

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/04/04/world/1194839161724/china-s-kidnapped-children.html

With the "one child" policy now a generation old, many unforeseen
consequences affect the most populous nation. Sons are obviously
preferable in a Confucian society, so the family line can continue,
and girls are often expected to live with and serve the husband's
family after marriage (especially in rural/poorer communities),
leaving the parents of the girl without a caretaker in their old age.
Therefore many of the boys in China are referred to as "little
princes" because they are spoiled and the focus of the family, with so
much riding on their existence.

So even though prenatal gender screening is illegal in China, some 40M
girls have been aborted since 1979 according to this documentary:
http://www.hbo.com/docs/docuseries/chinasstolenchildren/index.html.
That creates a terrible gender imbalance, which will render millions
of (mostly poor) Chinese males unable to find a mate when they mature,
which defeats the whole purpose of their parents having a son in the
first place.

The policy and culture have created an environment where children are
a very precious commodity, and a black market has emerged. In China's
growing economy, more mothers have joined the workforce, and migrating
labor creates transient communities where neighbors do not know each
other, so children are more vulnerable. Human traffickers abduct young
children and sell them to a new family. Obviously the child has to be
young enough so it can't escape and find its way back home, and cuter
males are more expensive. Babies are cheaper because they are more
labor-intensive. People are willing to pay 10,000 RMB ($4,000) for a
child.

Besides kidnappings, some poor parents have no choice but sell their
kids. Even if you have no children, you must obtain a birthing license
with the state (pre-labor) to be able to officially register your
child. Otherwise authorities will charge large penalties (8-20k RMB)
if a couple has a child without a license. Some laborers many only
earn 2-5k RMB per year, so such a fee is impossible to meet, and they
may decide to not register their child and sell them to traffickers
for 3-8k RMB. Then I suppose the new parents will falsely register the
child under their name.

Girls are kidnapped for another reason. Due to the gender imbalance,
poorer males will have a harder time getting married. Black market
wives can be more expensive (~20,000 RMB) and less reliable, so why
not buy a girl younger, cheaper, and then groom her to become your
little prince's spouse?

Officially, there are about 3,000 official kidnapping cases under
investigation each year, but some estimate the actual number to be
70,000. Law enforcement is either too busy or unwilling to investigate
many cases, maybe due to lack of evidence. But local authorities are
also concerned about angry parents traveling to Beijing to petition
the government and make a stink about their case. So instead of
helping the grief-stricken parents, they will intimidate them into
silence. Injustices and discontent make the state look bad, and the
government is more concerned with preserving stability and the
appearance of harmony versus solving crimes. For the greater good I
suppose.

Some committed parents have set up web networks for kidnapping victims
to share information, and this has resulted in a few rescues. But
generally, cases will never be solved and families are forced to live
with the shame and despair of their predicament. But since this
tragedy mostly affects the poor, much of China is turning a blind eye.
Growth and progress always come at a price, with a huge abyss
separating those who profit and those who pay. Just as the Great Wall
was supposedly built upon the corpses of slave laborers and conquered
foes, modern superpower China is only able to exist because of the
suffering of the poor masses (as an example, over 4,000 Chinese coal
workers officially die each year to keep their factories humming, but
the actual number is probably double). Marx and Mao may not have
expected that curve ball, but to be fair, this is the case for every
strong nation.