Paying the price

Parents who have more than the legally allowed number of children must pay social maintenance fees -- a fine imposed by provincial governments according to local average living costs.

This has allowed the preference for male heirs to extend beyond the rural heartlands to China's new rich, particularly to private enterprise owners, who can pay the penalties.

"Compared with men, women are disadvantaged. No dad or mom wants their baby born to a subordinate position," says a jewelry shop owner surnamed Jin in Wenzhou. "Here in Zhejiang, it's true that many bosses want to have a male heir to inherit family business."

Zhejiang is a bellwether of China's private economy. Cities such as Yiwu, Wenzhou and Taizhou are among the country's largest small-commodity distribution centers and manufacturing bases for export commodities.

In richer counties of these cities, the birth imbalance is especially distorted among second or third children in a family. In Leqing and Yiwu, the ratio is 147:100 among second children and 275:100 for third children.

"Among second children, we seldom see girls," says a villager in Yiwu.

In the past five years, family planning authorities have investigated more than 20,000 cases of illegal pregnancy gender scans and terminations.

But, in general, rural areas, which harbor the traditional belief that boys carry forward the family bloodline and sons can support their parents when they get old, report the most serious imbalance.

According to the 2010 Social Development Blue Paper from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the gender ratio of Chinese aged below 19 is seriously imbalanced. By 2020, the number of Chinese men at marriageable age outnumbered their female peers by 24 million.

While it may take time to put teeth into China's laws, some local governments are acting. In Sanmen, a county of Taizhou, the local government offers rewards of up to 10,000 yuan (1,510 U.S. dollars) for tip-offs of illegal gender scans and pregnancy terminations.

Some experts remain skeptical of an improvement in the situation, suggesting legislative bodies should put illegal gender testing under the Criminal Law so that law-breakers pay a steeper price.