Mao Offered America 10 Million Women

Today products from China are literally everywhere. It was not always so, however. In 1973 trade between the U.S. and China was negligible. But perhaps China had something to offer. During discussions with then US National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, Mao Zedong, leader of communist China, offered (in jest) to send 10 million Chinese women to America, complaining that Chinese ladies were too fertile and threatened the country with demographic disaster. He also lamented that Chinese women were not ready to fight the Russians. At the end of the meeting, deciding Mao's comments would anger the public, both men agreed to censor the comments from the official record. Mao's comments about women are only now made available from recently released U.S. state department documents. Interestingly, though Mao never did send his bevy of Chinese women to America, U.S. families adopt thousands of Chinese children every year, 95% of whom are girls. In 1979 China instituted the one-child policy. Though undertaken to ease the strain of overpopulation, the practical effect of China's birth control plan has been to create a situation in which China by 2020 will have 30 million more men than women, an issue of potential social instability.