China cracks down on international adoptions. Since the 1990s, thousands of children have been adopted from the People's Republic under the one-child policy, starting a new life with families abroad. Often in the United States. Now hundreds of American and other families find themselves in limbo.
In Xi Jinping's China, which is grappling with a declining birth rate and has said goodbye to the draconian policy - which led to so many abandonments, especially of girls and children with disabilities - international adoptions of Chinese children have decreased. Since the Covid-19 pandemic they have been mostly 'suspended'.
Now, according to CNN, the Chinese government is ending the program. Yesterday, the Beijing Foreign Ministry announced that there will be no more international adoptions for Chinese children. The only exception is foreigners who adopt children or stepchildren of relatives, blood relatives, in China.
The stop would not affect practices that have already received travel authorization. For the spokesperson of the Ministry, Mao Ning, it is all "in line with the spirit of international conventions." No explanation for what is effectively a stop to the program.
Data from the organization China's Children International speaks of over 160,000 Chinese children adopted by families in different countries around the world since the Asian giant 'opened up' to international adoptions in 1992. About half have been adopted in the US. In 2020, as confirmed at the time by the US State Department, Beijing had suspended international adoptions in the name of the "safety" and "health" of children.
