A senior Chinese official said that the existence of unbalanced sex ratio at birth in China has nothing to do with the country's family planning policy.

"The normal sex ratio at birth should be in the range of 100:103 (female:male) and 100:107. But it is now 100:119.86 in China," Gu Xiulian, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said at a news conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on Wednesday. 

Gu, who is also chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation, attributed the imbalance to three major factors: deep-rooted conventional ideas that males are superior to females, the lack of a sound social security system in the rural areas, and the availability of modern technology to identify the sex of a fetus.

"To my knowledge, the existence of an unbalanced ratio at birth is not unique to China, but has also been reported in some other countries that do not have a family planning policy," Gu said.

"Therefore, I should say the phenomenon has nothing to do with our family planning policy."

Gu said the imbalance reflects the inequality of men and women and it constitutes an infringement on the female's right to exist and develop.

According to Gu, the Chinese government has taken a series of measures to address the imbalance, including fostering awareness about gender equality, establishing and improving the social security system, stepping up crackdowns on illegal identification of fetus' sex, and providing more social care for girls.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2005)