China ended international adoption

[@mgliew]

I'm fairly certain that China's decision to stop international adoption is mostly driven by economics. China's population control with the one child policy was too successful in reducing China's population size. The policy was too simplistic and short sighted. China now stands to lose a very large number of their work force due to age and they don't have nearly enough people to replace retirees. China also doesn't have a way to increase their working population in the short term via immigration. Retaining adoptees within China helps keep the young working people within their own population.

[@Maya-vo8br]

I also know there’s a lot of stigma against disability still in China and most of the children being put up for adoption were disabled so this new law could either just land even more disabled children in orphanages. Or maybe it’ll lead to more disability acceptance but we don’t know yet (from a Chinese adoptee)

[@bartstarr6728]

I just think the discourse always has these subtle digs at China and Chinese people. Like the idea "Confucian culture values bloodlines so they wont adopt", "Chinese stigma against disability". Look, are Chinese people in China perfect? No. but a lot of the negative stereotyping is unfair. The Chinese people have big hearts as demonstrated by the charity unleashed when there's a earthquake in Sichuan or numerous other times. Now, there may need to be some public awareness campaigns by the government to get people thinking in terms of domestic adoptions to encourage it but it will definitely happen. I just don't think a country exporting babies, no matter good the intentions, is good for the country or the babies.

[@emi62507]

You’re right. The sad reality is that with exporting babies, in addition to the legal adoption there is also a high number of human trafficking and exploitation of the infants and biological parents, especially when the adoption process becomes a business.

[@mariaastin]

First of all, for context, I was born in 1999 in Hunan, China, and I was adopted when I was one. I got the opportunity to make some friends in China. All of them told me I was lucky to have been adopted by Spanish parents, I wouldn't have had the quality of life and education I have if I had stayed there. One of them told me that I would have died, not just that my life would have been more difficult there but I would have died, he also said that where I'm from is kinda poor, so I would struggle more than being here in Spain. There are also cases were children or babies in the orphanages weren't well cared. I actually came in Spain with problems in my stomach and an infection in my ears that hadn't been treated and left me temporary deaf (I needed surgery and therapy to learn how to talk after recovering my hearing). So I feel very lucky to have been adopted.

[@gwenmloveskpopandmore]

Yes ur one of the lucky adoptees I’ve seen others that aren’t as lucky

[@mariaastin]

@@gwenmloveskpopandmore yes, I know. My point was that given my situation (my context) I had more future outside in another family. But I understand that the situation can differ from one to another. I didn't try to say that as a general fact that works for everyone. That's why I said "I" and I talked from my experience and the replies given by my friends were in response of MY situation. The only general thing I said was how well taken care are babies in orphanages. About that I heard it really happened with many babies. But I really believe that if they ended up in an orphanage, if they were in a similar situation as me (not a very good orphanage and from a poor place). They were better adopted if they got a good family.

[@gwenmloveskpopandmore]

@@mariaastin ur right about those

[@erictansweebeng5498]

How would u feel if u were offered complimentary citizenship?

[@kiwifruitkl]

There are tons of kids in the US foster care system right now. Do they need families? Yes. But here's the thing in the USA: the foster care system is difficult to navigate through. The process is long and expensive and uncertain, and just when a family is so close to having a child for adoption, guess what? The birth parent wants it back. Some Americans may adopt through foster care system but that is also uncertain because foster care babies are temporary stays. They are not permanent. They are not forever babies. Also, people prefer to adopt as young as possible because older ones tend to retain memories of the past and have bad habits acquired from other places. With young children, they are much easier to mold/shape in the adoptive family's likeness. So, these are all incentives for international adoptions. Nikocado Avocado -- the famous KZbinr -- is actually adopted from Ukraine, I recall. Just saying, there are other countries besides China. The Philippines is a country with lots of poverty and lots of unwanted births, so it's likely that single moms will dump their kids at the orphanages, and that means foreigners can adopt kids there. There is that famous Pakistani girl on Chinese social media. She is Pakistani by descent. In Pakistan, her Chinese parents were working for some construction company and then found a baby and then the locals said they could take her, that she was abandoned. So, the couple suddenly became parents. Kind of a miracle, though, because they had been trying for a baby but was unsuccessful. And here she was... in Pakistan. She was raised in China with her adoptive parents and became Chinese. If you cover your eyes, you'll think you are listening to a regular Chinese girl. She doesn't like to study, though, so she does social media instead and has made a lot of money out of it--enough to finance a remodeling of her family's house.

[@gweisa899]

You made some good points. I feel all the emotion. One my orphanage friend was adopted domestically in the picture. However, I was adopted and many other’s abroad. I always wonder how she is doing in China.

[@gwenmloveskpopandmore]

I hope you’ll be able to find her after all these years

[@nanyanguo1]

Only by true understanding of why China started the foreign adoption program in the lst place n now could end the program, can we know it is something to be happy for the country. It means the days when babies in China were abandoned at alarming rate is over and no longer is there a lack of domestic adoption too. You see the program was started about 4 decades ago out of necessity cos that time China with over 4x the population of uS. had severe twin problems of poverty n abandoned babies . Overtime these problems have dissipated due to earnest efforts n careful planning by the chinese govt to bcome a rich industrial country . Do you know that China GDP in 2015 has grown to be largest in the world by PPP measure. and China today is $18 trillion economy? . By 2019 , the country extreme poverty was eradicated and the no of middle class risen to over 400m . The one child policy which was implemented at the time the country was too poor to feed the overpopulation . was lifted now that country is no longer poor.. The lifting of the one child restriction and rise of affluence in the country have resulted in 2 positives - the dwindling no of abandoned babies as pple could afford more children and the the growth of domestic adoption as childless couples n other families can now afford adoptions. Therefore , we should be happy for China for these milestone achievements as we should for any other countries that can do the same. Anyway even tho pple cant adopt from China anymore, they could still adopt from all the other countries such as latin america, india , phillipine , south korea n so on . There are millions of abandoned /orphaned children out there waiting to be adopted.