Nah, you were just thinking about it wrong. The idea is not to entertain the excess young men but rather to get their numbers down to something manageable.
An interesting article on China's obsession with food security. They want to be fully self-sufficient in making enough food for themselves, but are lacking in arable land and water. The soil is so poor that lower quality crops result and Chinese traders prefer to order things like corn from overseas (cheaper AND better quality), even though China is the world's second largest corn producer. If Chairman Xi wants to start some wars with his neighbors, he needs to make sure he can feed his own people first. China's food security dream faces land, soil and water woes
