Sexual revolution sweeps across China. HIV, divorce & abortion rates soar.

"There used to be a whole layer of government involved in snooping into people's lives," Professor Li said. "People were fired for having affairs and punished for living with their boyfriends or girlfriends."

Some sociologists believe the policy introduced in 1979 restricting urban couples to having just one child was the spark for the sexual permissiveness. Professor Pan Suiming, of the Renmin University of China, said: "The one-child policy shattered the Confucian belief that reproduction is the only purpose of sex."

But the internet has really fuelled the sexual revolution in China. With more than 100 million internet users and sex education in its infancy, young people turn to the internet for everything from information about sex to pornography, which is illegal in China. In the absence of a pub culture, they also use it to meet partners. Some surveys claim 30 per cent of all one-night stands in China are arranged on the web.

Unsurprisingly, this new-found sexual freedom has a negative side. The number of young single women having abortions has soared: 65 per cent of women terminating pregnancies in 2004 were single, compared to 25 per cent in 1999. Rates of HIV infections are growing quickest amongst the 15-to-24 age group, and the number of couples getting divorced in 2004 was 1.6 million, a 21 per cent rise on 2003. But now the genie is out of the bottle, it seems there is no turning back.


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article332352.ece