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There have been 38 million more males born on the mainland since 1980 than females,  sparking fears among demographers that a rising number of single males could threaten social stability.
Official statistics show that male births outnumbered female births by 107 to 100 in 1980, but that rose to 120.49 to 100 by the end of 2006. At that rate, males born since 1980 would have outnumbered females born in the same period by 38 million at the end of last year.
Professor Yuan Xin, from Tianjin's Nankai University, said a gender ratio ranging from 103:100 to 107:100 was considered normal by international standards.
He said the significantly more single males would  have no families to support them later in life and they would have to depend on the social security system after retirement.
So many single males 'could mean a significant problem for social stability and the social fabric, particularly marriage, if they could not find a partner of the opposite sex and a family of their own'.
The drastic rise in the gender imbalance followed the introduction by the central government of the controversial family planning policy that limits most families to one child. 
Although the authorities have claimed that the one-child policy has helped China avoid a population increase of 400 million people since the 1980s, it has come under intense international scrutiny for some of the inhumane measures adopted by family planning authorities in the past, including forced abortion and sterilisation.
Yuan said the one-child policy had contributed to the deteriorating gender imbalance  in newborns, 'but the root cause of the problem is preference for boys in a male-dominated culture, and a lack of social and economic development'.
He said the abuse of sex-screening techniques had also played a role.
Yuan said adjustment of the policy would go some way towards addressing the imbalance, but the authorities needed to take several approaches to tackling the problem, including a clampdown on sex-screening techniques and  making efforts to build a sound social welfare system.
There has been widespread concern expressed about the welfare of single males in the future as a result of the deteriorating gender imbalance, but Yuan said he was saddened by the fact that the welfare of women was being ignored.
He said a surplus of millions of males 'would naturally mean the loss of an equal number of females in the same period'.
'How? They're either destroyed as a fetus or killed after birth. It's a story soaked with blood as the surplus came as a sacrifice of the same number of women,' Yuan said.
Two of a kind? 
With an estimated 38 million more men than women on the mainland, males are finding it  increasingly difficult to find a partner, which has serious implications for social stability
The gender disparity is widest among children aged 0-4, with the number of males for every 100 females about: 120
And among children born second, the number of males for every 100 females is about: 143
Source: United Nations Population Fund



Growing gender imbalance sparks fears for social fabric