Professor In China Has Suggestion For Increasing Birth Rate: Let Women Have Two Husbands

An economics  professor at Fudan University in Shanghai has a suggestion for how China, which has tried numerous methods to counterbalance the effects of is long-time one child policy, can finally increase its birth rate, which has persisted in staying low: permit women to have more than one husband.

“They’ve told couples that it’s their patriotic duty to have two babies. They’ve dangled tax breaks and housing subsidies. They’ve offered to make education cheaper and parental leave longer. They’ve tried to make it more difficult to get an abortion or a divorce. None of this has worked,” reports The Washington Post.

Professor Yew-Kwang Ng, who hails from Malaysia, issues a weekly column. In a June 2  column titled “Is polyandry really a ridiculous idea?” he stated:

I wouldn’t suggest polyandry if the gender ratio was not so severely imbalanced … I’m not advocating for polyandry, I’m just suggesting that we should consider the option in the face of an imbalanced gender ratio … If two men are willing to marry the same wife and the woman is willing, too, what reason does society have to stop them sharing a wife?”

He continued, “I’m not denying the advantages of monogamy here, such as how exclusive long-term relationships can benefit kids’ growth and education. But given China’s skewed sex ratio, it’s necessary to consider allowing polyandry legally.”

Getting more graphic, Ng offered, “It’s common for prostitutes to serve more than 10 clients in a day. Making meals for three husbands won’t take much more time than for two husbands,” he added.

Some women expressed their anger on Weibo; one wrote, “It made me throw up.” Another added, “I’m shocked by what he says. Is it 2020 now?” A third snapped, “Let me translate what he means: he wants to legalize sex slaves.”

Another suggestion: “I think we should try male infanticide. I can guarantee you that we’ll have more women in 20 years.”

One comment got more personal: “Okay, let’s experiment with your daughter first.”

Prior to the June 2 column, Ng had asserted that “men’s tendency to cheat in marriage can never be eliminated” and thus monogamy challenged men’s nature.

Ng pontificated more about men-women relationships in a following column, writing that because there are so many more men than women, (China has 34 more million men than women), “a man’s right to achieving sexual satisfaction is being severely violated if legal sex work is not allowed,” thus legalizing prostitutes and increasing the number of brothels would permit men to satiate their “urgent needs.”

The Post noted, “In 2015, the Communist Party started unwinding the one-child policy, but it has had almost no impact. Women increasingly want careers of their own, and many would rather channel their energy into giving just one child a good start in life than splitting their resources between two.”