China's Gender Gap Not a Problem in Xinjiang

News has been making its rounds recently about the incredible gender gap that exists in China today.  A British Medical Journal study concluded that currently there are over 32 million more boys than girls in this country, a situation made possible thanks to the one-child policy, selective abortion, and what the AFP calls China's "obsession with a male heir".  For those who live in China this is hardly news.  One look inside any elementary school could have saved these researchers a whole lot of time and money.

There's one part of the story, however, that is quite interesting, a part which has gone unnoticed by the likes of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.  In the midst of all this gender imbalance there are only two provinces in China which have a normal sex-ratio.  Tibet...and Xinjiang.

Why is that?  According to the AFP it is because we are "the most permissive in terms of the one-child policy", but as I've pointed out before that is not always true.  There are still (vague) rules for all ethnic groups who want big families and even those are often just treated as guidelines.

You might find this odd, but if you ask most foreigners living in Xinjiang if there are more boys than girls within the province the answer would most certainly be a "Yes".  I am one of them, and I would like to suggest a couple of reasons for this confusing contradiction:

• Within the Han Chinese group a gender gap still exists in Xinjiang like it does in every other province in China.  It's the minorities who balance it all out.  Most foreigners live in areas which are dominated by Han population, therefore our perception is skewed by what we see most often.
• Foreigners usually reside in the wealthiest parts of the province (i.e. Urumqi or the surrounding oil cities).  The most lax child policies exist in the rural areas where farming is a way of life and sonogram machines aren't even accessible.
• I recently read that a Chinese census like the one used by this study does not include military personnel as a part of its provincial population.  This male-dominated group has a strong and very visible presence in all parts of Xinjiang.

Sooner or later I believe the daily immigration of Han Chinese from inner provinces will ensure that Xinjiang doesn't hold this balanced distinction for long.  For now though, despite what it looks like to the casual observer, it must not be a problem.