China has announced an end to the foreign adoption of children, with exceptions for blood relatives and stepchildren. Since 1992, over 80,000 Chinese children have been adopted by U.S. families. This new decision leaves in limbo hundreds of families at various stages of the lengthy adoption process.
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00:00China will no longer allow children from the country to be adopted by non-Chinese nationals
00:06overseas.
00:07Beijing says the change in policy is in line with international trends concerning adoption.
00:12In the future, we will no longer adopt children from other countries, except for the three-generation
00:16children of Pangxi, Tongbei, and Xueqing, and their great-grandchildren.
00:22This is in line with the spirit of the international agreement.
00:25For three decades, foreign families have adopted Chinese children after the country permitted
00:30the practice in 1992.
00:32Between 1979 and 2015, China's one-child policy restricted family sizes, and many parents
00:38chose to give up children for adoption.
00:41Over 80,000 children, mostly girls, were adopted by families in the U.S., the most of any country.
00:47And this change in policy has left hundreds of families at various stages of adoption
00:51in limbo, as it's a process that typically takes several years.
00:56Families like the Welch's from Louisville, Kentucky, who successfully adopted one child
00:59from China and began the process to adopt another in 2019.
01:03It was actually five years ago this month that we were matched with a little girl named,
01:09that we call Penelope.
01:11She was five years old at the time, and she has a sensitive medical need, which makes
01:16it almost impossible for her to be adopted where she is.
01:20China suspended foreign adoptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, but later resumed them.
01:24The Welch's say they had completed all the paperwork and started preparing for their
01:28adoptive daughter's arrival.
01:30We prepared, we bought new clothes for her.
01:34Her bed has been ready since January of 2019.
01:40We worked on language.
01:42We practiced making Chinese food that she would like.
01:45We did all of the things, and we were ready, but the call never came.
01:49Adoption agencies in the U.S. say the policy change is clear, and it means ongoing adoption
01:54cases are going to be terminated.
01:57I'm not going to stop advocating, and I hope others won't either, but the communication
02:02that we got was clear.
02:06The ministry spokeswoman in China made it very clear that they are ending adoptions,
02:13and the notice that was given to the Department of State said that included pending adoptions.
02:18The Welch's say they plan to appeal the decision and advocate for other children and families
02:23with pending adoptions.
02:24The move to end foreign adoptions comes as China's birth rate continues to decline.
02:29Last year, the number of Chinese newborns dropped to around 9 million, while the overall
02:34population shrunk for the second year in a row.
02:36Beijing knows that its former birth control measures have led to fewer young people having
02:40to support a massive aging population.
02:44For this reason, China's previously unwanted children are now seen as future assets it
02:49would rather keep hold of.
02:50Alex Chen and Wesley Lewis for Taiwan Plus.