Why China banned international adoptions
Summary
- Much has changed since the programme was started
The announcement came at a routine press briefing on September 5th. Mao Ning, a foreign-ministry spokesperson, said China was grateful for the “desire and love" of the foreign families who wanted to adopt Chinese children. But, she added, China would no longer allow the practice. Exceptions would be made for foreigners adopting stepchildren and children of blood relatives in China. For everyone else the new policy would take effect immediately, meaning even adoptions already in progress would be halted.
China had long been a top country of origin for international adoptions. More than 160,000 Chinese children have been placed in homes overseas since the early 1990s, when China first allowed the practice. (Just over half of those went to America.) For much of that time, Chinese orphanages were full as a result of the state’s population-control measures. Under the one-child policy, in place from 1980 to 2016, most families were limited to a single baby. Parents preferred boys, who would carry on the family name. Girls and sick or disabled children were more likely to be given up.
International adoptions seemed a good way to relieve the stress on orphanages and spare children from having to grow up in a grim state-run facility. Those taken in by foreigners include three being raised by the prime minister of Sweden and two by the prime minister of the Netherlands.
But today China faces a different demographic challenge. With its population declining, the government has turned to pro-natalist policies. Meanwhile, living standards have risen dramatically, along with the quality of social services. As a result, fewer children are being given up. International adoptions peaked in the mid-2000s and the number of orphans has declined, from 549,000 in 2013 to 144,000 last year. China is now better able to support them.
The international-adoption programme had always rubbed nationalists the wrong way. That China had to rely on foreigners to raise its children was a source of humiliation. Conspiracy-minded commentators accused adoptive families of dark motives, such as a desire to conduct research on Chinese children or cultivate spies.
That is all nonsense. But experts have found that international adoption comes with real difficulties. Corruption and abuse taint some programmes. And life can be hard for those adopted, even if raised in good homes, as they wrestle with questions of ethnicity and identity.
China’s ban, then, is not without justification. But for the families in the process of adopting children from China, the abrupt nature of the decision has caused heartbreak and confusion.
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