China halts international adoptions

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 10th of September.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up, the end of adoptions from China.

Thousands of Chinese orphans found homes with American families over the last few decades. But last week, China announced it was halting all international adoptions.

REICHARD: That included many who were in process—children who had been matched with families in the U.S., some of whom had even met them in person.

Back in March, WORLD’s Lindsay Mast brought us the story of a family cleared to get their daughter before the door to adopt from China closed for good. Today she has an update.

DIANNE CHINERY: We put part of our hearts on a shelf in a box and said, “Okay, we have to move on. But we know you're there.”

That was how Dianne Chinery described the nearly four years of her life she spent waiting to adopt her daughter Mei back when she still didn’t know if they would bring her home. Her family had been just days away from traveling to China when the COVID pandemic halted their plans.

The Chinerys had already adopted three other children from China, but when the government finally gave them clearance to adopt Mei, things were different. They didn’t see any other Americans while in Guangzhou, where much of the U.S.-China adoption activity happens.

SOUND: [MEI AT ZOO]

They were allowed to take Mei out to the zoo, but told to keep a low profile while in the country.

DIANE CHINERY: They wanted us to stay in a certain hotel that had government oversight. We were, we were, I don't want to say watched or followed, but we were, you know, there was a someone in the lobby of the hotel every time that we went down.

The Council for Foreign Relations estimates there are more than a half million orphans in China. In the 12 years prior to the pandemic, US citizens adopted an average of more than two thousand Chinese children each year. That number was dropping even before the pandemic, and fell to zero during fiscal years 2021 and 2022. The State Department recently reported just 16 adoptions for 2023.

And then last week, China announced that it’s halting international adoptions, except for certain inter-family situations…China says the decision is in line with recent international conventions–though it did not specify which ones. That’s left families hurting, and trying to understand the change.

HERBIE NEWELL: These families that have been waiting for four and a half years have been patiently waiting. It's been an arduous journey.

Herbie Newell is President and Executive Director of Lifeline Children’s Services. He estimates that some 400 children who had been matched to U.S. families won’t be coming home to them. Lifeline was working with 62 of them.

NEWELL: Twelve of those had actually come to the United States on a hosting program in 2019 and so they had met their families, and their families had met them, and now they're inexplicably stuck.

He doubts China’s decision was made quickly, and says it's likely multi-faceted: China has changed, and so has the landscape of international adoption.

Two decades ago, China announced it would focus on releasing only special needs children for adoption. As China’s economy improved he says it’s possible the country was more able to care for its own children.

Additionally, China’s policy allowing families to have just one child ended in 2016. That has led to fewer children being given up for adoption. The Council for Foreign Relations says that domestic adoptions within China have been on the rise, but at nowhere near the rate needed to match the number of children in need, and the children who have the most severe needs will likely still struggle to be placed.

On the American side, Newell says changes in the State Department’s approach have contributed to a decline in international adoptions generally.

NEWELL: When I started doing this over 20 years ago, the Department of State, Office of Children's Issues, very much was proactive and diplomatic to travel to countries to talk about our partnership and our cooperation of helping find homes for children…

But then between 2006 and 2008, the department put more energy into policing and safeguarding its agencies…with unintended consequences.

NEWELL: …and a lot of that safeguarding, just like a lot of red tape that’s bureaucratic, came with a cost, and that cost went to parents.

Newell also says some countries have expressed skepticism about what might happen to children now arriving in the U.S.

NEWELL: I think the the redefinition of family has has concerned a lot of more conservative leaning governments that have, and China was one, you had to be married, you had to be a heterosexual couple. And I think a lot of governments were scared as to what would happen once those children got to the United States.

Newell says whatever went into China’s decision-making, this step is a sad one for many children.

NEWELL: We don't believe there's a way possible for them to come home, although, as an organization, as a ministry, we're continuing to lobby both our government as well as the People's Republic of China to ask for a special exclusion and a waiver for these 400 children that were waiting for their families to come.

AUDIO: (MEI IN POOL) You want 5 more minutes Mei-Mei? You can have lots more minutes!

Dianne Chinery watches her daughter Mei swim at the family’s new home in Georgia. Photo by Lindsay Mast

These days, Dianne Chinery spends lots of time watching over her daughter Mei in their new home’s pool. The family moved there over the summer so Mei could swim more—the water seems good for her cerebral palsy.

SOUND: [MEI IN POOL]

Watching Mei chase a toy across the pool in the bright September sun, it’s hard for her to think about the children who won’t get the same chance to thrive.

CHINERY: This is not about just the people that didn't get their children out. It's again, a policy affecting the flourishing of people, because they've taken away an opportunity, an opportunity to live, to thrive, to—all those things.

And while human efforts to move the government are limited, Chinery trusts that God can provide homes for these children in China.

CHINERY: So we pray for gospel hope, and we pray for the church in China too. The underground church. I've wondered how if they're going to be able to adopt children, if the government would allow true Christians to adopt these children, because those children would be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, not the nurture and admonition of the Chinese government.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

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