Not enough Chinese women? Professor says wife sharing may be the answer.

Chinese economist Professor Xie Zuoshi presented his controversial idea on a blog post proposing polyandry - a form of polygamy where a woman has two or more husbands - as a solution to the country’s demographic.

China’s one-child policy and a preference for male children has left the world’s most populous nation in a serious bind: too many bachelors, not enough eligible women.

View photos Chinese couples in group wedding ceremony, By 2020 China is expected to have 30 million men without a partner. Photo: AP More

By 2020, it has been estimated that China will have 30 million bachelors — known as guanggun, or “bare branches.”

“If legalised, polyandry would be a perfect solution for satisfying the sexual needs of 30 million single men — which might be one of the key factors contributing to social unrest,” Xie Zuoshi, a professor at Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, wrote.

View photos Men playing checkers in Beijing. “If legalised, polyandry would be a perfect solution for satisfying the sexual needs of 30 million single men. Photo: Ed Jones/Getty More

Xie noted that wife sharing is already a common practice among men in rural villages, as the “value of women [is] going up.”

The post was obtained and translated by the South China Morning Post.

Some angry users of Weibo, a popular Chinese social media site, called the suggestion “degenerative” and “shameless.”

Of the 7700 people who weighed in on an ongoing poll about the suggestion on Weibo, 66 percent disagree with Xie, according to the Hong Kong Free Press.

View photos A Chinese economist suggested that men should share their wives because of the huge surplus of single men. Photo: Supplied More

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