PROVO — A country that safeguards its women is a safer place to live, according to research done by a Brigham Young University professor who will appear Sunday night on "60 Minutes."
The television newsmagazine will feature Valerie Hudson during a report on gender imbalance in China at 6 p.m. on CBS.
The Deseret Morning News first reported in fall 2003 that Hudson's research, published in a 2004 book, warned China would have 30 million "surplus" young adult men in 2020. The cause is a culture that values boys over girls and includes widespread sex-selective abortion. Her research linked surplus men to rising crime rates and other destabilizing trends, including national security concerns.
The book, "Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population," was a finalist for the Grawemeyer Award for Improving World Order and won the Association of American Publishers' award for best professional/scholarly book in government and political science. Andrea den Boer, former graduate student of Hudson, is co-author of the book.
Sunday's "60 Minutes" show coincides with next week's visit of Chinese president Hu Jintao to the United States. China has begun to react to its gender-imbalance problem by offering pensions to parents with daughters and criminalizing sex-selective abortion — many Chinese couples abort pregnancies when they learn the fetus is female.
Some provinces have gone so far as to ban ultrasounds after a pregnancy reaches 14 weeks because gender usually isn't apparent until 16 weeks. Sex selection in China, India and Pakistan spiked around 1985, when ultrasounds became available.
" '60 Minutes' was interested in the consequences of gender imbalance and what it meant to regional security," Hudson said. "They went to China, and I'm interested to see what kind of footage they got and what kind of interviews they had, especially with Chinese officials."
China's imbalance is larger than any other nation's. The normal gender ratio is about 106 males born for every 100 females. The Chinese government recently announced the ratio in its country is 119 males for every 100 females. In about 15 years, China will have 30 million men between the ages of 15 and 35 who will never marry, Hudson said.
The surplus men are prone to violence, according to research by Hudson and den Boer, because they cannot find marriage partners and struggle to fit into society and find jobs. One reason is that they often are uneducated — 74 percent of unmarried Chinese males did not graduate from high school.
The "60 Minutes" report, by Lesley Stahl, is titled "Too Many Men."
Hudson and den Boer spent a full day last summer in New York City, where Stahl interviewed them, "which was sheer delight," Hudson said.
The co-authors answered additional questions via e-mail, but at one point went months without hearing from Stahl or producer Karen Sughrue.
"We learned about the broadcast about 2 1/2 weeks ago," Hudson said. "That was kind of advance notice for them. They usually only find out the Thursday before a Sunday show which reports will air that week."
Hudson is certain "60 Minutes" wanted to capitalize on Hu's visit, which includes speeches in Washington, D.C., and Seattle and at Yale University. An occasional policy adviser to Hu told the Associated Press that Hu is expected to try to allay U.S. fears his country is preparing to flex its muscles by saying China is too consumed with domestic problems to engage in military adventures abroad.
More than 14 million viewers watched "60 Minutes" last Sunday, making it the 13th most-watched program in America.
"It's very gratifying that something I've done as a social scientist may make a difference in the world," Hudson said. "Us poor academics rarely feel like anything we're doing makes a direct impact."
E-mail: twalch@desnews.com