Just found these figures for 2009.

Male births were 119.45 for every 100 female births - a narrowing of 1.11, the first drop since 2006.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7011709.html

Poirot,
It is known about, and mostly occurs because more baby girls are killed in abortion clinics than baby boys. There are laws in many Asian countries against this, but it doesn't stop it completely.

According to feminist theory, it doesn't matter, because the foetus is not a human, but just a bunch of cells.

Sort of puts feminist theory to the test, doesn’t it.

Continuing the diversion to China some interesting material on the One-child policy at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy#Effects_on_female_population and on sex ratio's in humans at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio

It's obviously not easy to get clear figures but one that stuck out from the first of those "According to a report by the State Population and Family Planning Commission, there will be 30 million more men than women in 2020". At it's simplest that would suggest a figure of around 30 to 40 million more girls killed due to the one-child policy than boys.

I've not found a figure yet for just the male deaths in wars of the 20th century but one source puts the total war deaths of the 20th century at 160 million http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/massacre.html
Note another source suggested that 300 million died of Smallpox in the 20th century.

Looking for detail I came across a horrifying article on the Rape of Nanking http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/nanking.htm details were similar elsewhere (although there is dispute). For those who want to make an issue of body counts from either side of the gender divide it's worth read to bring home the sheer horror when people treat others as objects.

VAH affects us all.

R0bert

Graham, according to Wikipedia:"In an extensive study, carried out around 2005, of sex ratio at birth in the United States from 1940 over 62 years,[11] statistical evidence suggested the following: For mothers having their first baby, the total sex ratio at birth was 1.06 overall, with some years at 1.07. For mothers having babies after the first, this ratio consistently decreased with each additional baby from 1.06 towards 1.03. The age of the mother affected the ratio: the overall ratio was 1.05 for mothers aged 25 to 35 at the time of birth; while mothers who were below the age of 15 or above 40 had babies with a sex ratio ranging between 0.94 to 1.11, and a total sex ratio of 1.04. This United States study also noted that American mothers of Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese, Cuban and Japanese ethnicity had the highest sex ratio, with years as high as 1.14 and average sex ratio of 1.07 over the 62 year study period."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio

So it appears there are a couple of confounding factors. First, Chinese mothers have a high rate of male births. Second, a one-child policy means there will be a higher than normal rate of first-time mothers, who also tend to produce more boys.

Wikipedia again:""Sex-selective abortion and infanticide are thought to significantly skew the naturally occurring ratio in some populations, such as China, where the introduction of ultrasound scans in the late 1980s has led to a birth sex ratio (males to females) of 1.133 (2011 CIA estimate data)"

Poirot, the article isn't very credible. It reverses the true gender ratio

"the normal range of 103 males to 107 females.

In industrialized countries, the ratio is 100 to 107."

and overstates the gender ratio considerably.

The issue with the Chinese one child policy is that from what I understand, in China, culturally it is the male childs responsibility to provide/care for the parents in their old age.

From what I understand in many third world rural areas, male children were preferred because of the labour that they could provide.

So the choice or preference for male children is based on economic reasons.

Antiseptic,

It's obvious that there is a significant discrepancy in the ratio of male and female births in China - even compared to your figures for industrialised countries. It's not all that surprising in light of the one child policy. As JamesH points out, there are economic reasons for preferring a male child, especially if you've only got one shot at it. However, there will be ramifications in the years to come when males are unable to find wives....