China stops foreign adoptions, ending a complicated chapter

For three decades, China sent tens of thousands of babies overseas for adoption as it enforced a strict one-child policy that forced many families to abandon their children.

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Now, the government will no longer allow most foreign adoptions, a move it said was in line with global trends.

The ban raises questions for many of the hundreds of families in the US who were in the process of adopting children from China and had heard earlier this week from adoption agencies that China was moving to bar international adoptions.

The official confirmation came in the form of a brief comment by China's Foreign Ministry on Sept 5.

"We are grateful for the desire and love of the governments and adoption families of relevant countries to adopt Chinese children," said Ms Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the ministry.

She offered few details about the new policy, except to say that exceptions would be made only for foreigners adopting stepchildren and children of blood relatives in China.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, China was a top country of origin for international adoption, having sent more than 160,000 children overseas since the early 1990s.

But its programme had been tainted by past allegations of corruption and by its association with China's harshly enforced birth restrictions.

Many families left their babies in alleyways or at the doors of police stations or social welfare institutions to avoid severe penalties for violating the one-child policy.