Are sex dolls replacing China’s missing women? – China’s latest top news

Are sex dolls replacing China’s missing women?

Mei Fong, author of One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment and previous Sinica Podcast guest, has a new article in Foreign Policy that looks at a growth industry in China: lifelike dolls used by men for sexual purposes.

• Fong notes that “sales of sex toys on online platforms such as Alibaba and Taobao surged an average of 50 percent year-on-year in the last five years,” and that “Singles Day — China’s biggest online shopping event — saw a surge in the sale of sex dolls” last year.
• One factor behind the market growth: “China is forecast to have over 30 million surplus men by 2030” partly as a result of the one-child policy.

19th Party Congress update

Set to begin on October 18, the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress will be the major political story from China this month, barring a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula or a similarly catastrophic event. Throughout the month, we’ll keep you updated on reporting, commentary, and speculation on China’s twice-a-decade negotiated handover of power. Here are links for today:

• The China Project’s guide to the 19th Party Congress, in case you missed it.
• A series from the Brookings Institute, including this video explainer from senior fellow Cheng Li 李成.
• A Caixin report noting that “five senior Chinese Communist Party officials in Chongqing who were earlier elected to represent the municipality at the upcoming National Party Congress have been excluded from the final list of attendees.” Chongqing’s former Party chief was announced to be under investigation for corruption and violation of Party discipline in July.
• A New York Times report (paywall) on the apparent blocking by Facebook of a page controlled by exiled tycoon Guo Wengui 郭文贵.