The State Population and Family Planning Commission has set its major tasks for 2004, and highlights gender imbalance as a major issue to tackle in the coming year.

Family planning departments nationwide should pay great attention to the worsening gender imbalance and tackle the issue by advocating equality between men and women, said Zhang Weiqing, minister in charge of the State Population and Family Planning Commission, at the National Conference on Population and Family Planning held in Beijing yesterday.

As the nation's birthrate has been decreasing steadily over the past few years, the gender ratio of newborn males to females has been on the rise. "This has become a social problem," said Zhang.

According to the fifth national census, conducted in 2000, the ratio of newborn males per 100 females in China had reached 116.86, much higher than the normal level of 103 to 107.

"The gender imbalance will seriously affect the structure of the whole population and hamper the harmonious development of society," said Zhang.

The minister urged the family planning departments nationwide to explore effective ways to tackle the increasingly serious issue of gender imbalance. He also called on the concerned departments to crack down harder on the trading in, abusing and deserting female babies, as well as illegal gender examination of fetuses, and abortions.

Discrimination against females is common in many rural and underdeveloped areas. As a result, learning of a fetus' gender by the ultrasonic wave method has led to many abortions of female babies.

Besides, due to the imperfect social security system, many people have to rely on their children in their old age. The traditional idea that only sons are supposed to support the parents leads to many people's choice of boys.

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2003)