China is ending foreign adoptions of its children. That leaves hundreds of American families in limbo

By Nectar Gan, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — China is ending most foreign adoptions of its children, leaving hundreds of American and other foreign families with pending applications in limbo.

Since the early 1990s, China has sent tens of thousands of adoptees overseas – with about half arriving in the United States – as its draconian one-child policy forced many families to abandon children, especially girls and babies with disabilities.

But in recent decades, as China’s economy boomed and births slowed, international adoptions of Chinese children have declined in number. Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, they have largely been on hold.

Now the Chinese government is officially ending the program – which it said is in line with global trends, but also comes as officials try to reverse the country’s sharply declining birthrates and avert a looming demographic crisis.

China’s Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that no more Chinese children would be sent abroad for adoption. The only exceptions will be for foreigners adopting the children or stepchildren of blood relatives in China.

“This is in line with the spirit of relevant international conventions,” the ministry’s spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular news conference. “We are grateful for the desire and love of the governments and adoptive families of relevant countries to adopt Chinese children.”

The ban raises uncertainty for hundreds of American families currently in the process of adopting children from China.

The US embassy in Beijing is seeking clarification in writing from China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs on the new directive, the State Department said Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

In a phone call with US diplomats in China, Beijing said it “will not continue to process cases at any stage” other than those covered by an exception clause, AP reported.

“We understand there are hundreds of families still pending completion of their adoption, and we sympathize with their situation,” the State Department said.

More than 160,000 Chinese children have been adopted into families all over the world since China officially opened its doors to international adoption in 1992, according to China’s Children International, an international organization created by and for Chinese adoptees. About half of these children have been adopted to the US.

Between 1999 and 2023, American parents adopted 82,674 children from China, accounting for 29% of all US overseas adoptions, according to data from the US State Department.

China suspended international adoptions in 2020 during the pandemic to “ensure the health and safety” of the children, according to a notice from the US State Department on intercountry adoptions from China at the time.

No Chinese children were sent to the US for adoption in 2021 or 2022. Last year, 16 children were adopted from China, according to the US State Department.

Beijing scrapped its decades-long and highly controversial “one child” policy after realizing the restriction had contributed to a rapidly aging population and shrinking workforce that could severely distress the country’s economic and social stability.

To arrest the falling birth rate, the Chinese government announced in 2015 that it would allow married couples to have two children. But after a brief uptick in 2016, the national birth rate has continued to fall.

Policymakers further relaxed limits on births in 2021, allowing three children, and ramped up efforts to encourage larger families, including strengthening maternity leave and offering tax deductions and other perks to families.

But those efforts have yet to see results amid changing gender norms, the high cost of living and education, and looming economic uncertainty.

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Correction: A previous version of this report misclassified the proportion of Chinese adoptees in the US. Children from China accounted for 29% of all US overseas adoptions between 1999 and 2023.