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recently, foreign ministry spokesperson mao ning confirmed at a press conference that china has adjusted its transnational adoption policy and will no longer send children abroad for adoption, except for "foreigners adopting children and stepchildren of collateral relatives within three generations in china." this means that the door for foreigners to adopt children in china has been almost completely closed.

the history of foreigners adopting children in china can be traced back to 39 years ago. in 1985, china approved a tourist to adopt a baby girl in guangdong for the first time, and the door for ordinary foreign citizens to adopt children in china was opened. in 1992, china began to implement the "adoption law" and soon formulated the "registration measures for children adopted by foreigners in the people's republic of china", allowing foreign families to adopt orphans in china. china soon became the main provider of children for citizens of the united states, spain, germany and other countries.

during this period, the country that was most interested in us was not russia, which had "diplomatic relations for generations", or even east asian countries, but the united states. in the united states, the families that adopt chinese children are mostly white, with an annual income of more than $50,000. they need to spend at least $5,000 and go through the longest international adoption waiting time, at least 18 months, to get a chinese abandoned child.

since it is mainly a personal behavior, the motivation of americans is generally related to their beliefs and even cultural values. as a major christian country, many american families believe that adopting children from poor countries has a sacred meaning. compared with the difficult domestic adoption procedures, chinese families are usually less exposed to drugs and alcohol, and the children will be in better health. on the other hand, most of the abandoned babies in china are girls. influenced by the long-term idea of ​​favoring boys over girls and the family planning policy, a large number of healthy girls have been abandoned. in addition, due to the poor economy, many families are overwhelmed by the care of disabled children, and the number of abandoned children remains high.

families are willing to throw, but the state cannot catch. for example, according to data from a county-level welfare home in guangdong in 2009, there were 43 orphans and disabled children in the home, not including staff, and the county government's annual fiscal allocation was only 120,000 yuan, which was not enough to cover the most basic medical and food expenses for orphans and disabled children. this situation is not an isolated case. southern metropolis daily once reported that a large number of welfare homes, represented by zhenyuan county in guizhou province, have similar funding gaps.

in fact, as a sequela of the dual buffs of favoring sons over daughters and family planning, the welfare homes set up by the civil affairs department can only guarantee the retention of a small number of abandoned children for the sake of financial benefits and return rates. rough campus management and poor funding mean that many welfare institutions have outdated basic equipment, making it even more difficult to become a high-quality growth cradle for abandoned children. at this time, some welfare homes have set their sights on sending children abroad to get rich.

americans need to donate about $3,000 to the orphanage to take the child away, and the china adoption center needs to charge an additional $365 review fee and $200 translation fee, plus other various procedures, the total cost is more than 5,000 yuan. some local orphanages even require each employee to complete the adoption quota of three orphans per year, and only after completing the task can they receive wages and bonuses.

in 2005, americans adopted 7,903 infants and young children from china, reaching a record high. in 2006, the china adoption center also made regulations to "prioritize" foreign adoption application documents to speed up the adoption process.

money-making can easily lead to trouble. at the end of 2005, a gang-run baby trafficking case occurred in qidong county, hengyang. behind the scenes, many welfare institutions in hengyang city colluded with traffickers to buy infants and young children, and turned them into "abandoned babies" and sent them to foreign adoption channels to make profits.

on the one hand, something went wrong, and on the other hand, the economy was booming. influenced by at least two factors, starting in 2007, new regulations on foreign adoptions stipulated that only heterosexual, married couples were allowed to adopt children. the couples must be between 30 and 50 years old and have been married for at least two years. in addition, a large number of external conditions were added. by 2009, the number of chinese children adopted by american families had dropped to more than 3,000.

the civil code, which officially came into effect on january 1, 2021, further regulates and restricts adoption by foreigners. during the epidemic, relevant chinese agencies suspended foreign adoptions. it was resumed in 2023, and only 16 chinese children were adopted by american families that year.

it is worth mentioning that in the early days, most of the chinese children adopted by foreigners were healthy girls due to the family planning policy and the preference for boys over girls. however, as the family planning policy gradually relaxed, the number of abandoned baby girls decreased, and in the later period, almost all abandoned children were disabled children, more than half of whom had congenital defects and needed special care. disability was like a curse, and they could neither get the recognition of their original families nor wait for well-intentioned domestic adoptive families.

overall, the policy of foreign adoption cannot be said to be flawless, nor can it be said to be positive and progressive, but it has finally allowed these disabled children with cleft lip, congenital heart disease, incomplete or deformed limbs, amblyopia or hearing loss to find their own opportunities on the other side of the ocean. they have regained a chance to become "needed people."

after several decades, the foreign adoption system finally came to an end in the summer of 2024. for the country's dignity, as the special background passes, it may not be a bad thing for itself to be able to better take care of abandoned children.

from this moment on, the fate of the abandoned children will be entirely their own responsibility and will be returned to the hands of this great eastern country.