appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Laura Zhou

US lawmakers are pushing President Joe Biden to intercede on behalf of American families whose child-adoption process in China was under way when Beijing closed off the programme to foreigners about two months ago.
In an open letter, the 103 lawmakers comprising Democrats and Republicans, appealed for the families who were “left in a state of uncertainty about the completion of their adoption” from China.
They also voiced concern for the Chinese children already matched with the American families. Beijing in late August said foreign adoptions from China would no longer proceed.
Some 300 children on the mainland, many of whom are disabled, had been matched with adoptive families in the US when the ban was announced.


Lawmakers and others have argued that this could be the children’s last chance to to be cared for by a family, as their chances of being adopted domestically are low.
“We request that you act in the best interest of these children and families by urging the PRC to fulfil and uphold the commitment the country has made,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Biden.
Beijing has offered no clear explanation for its decision to halt the three-decade-old foreign-adoption programme. Strained Sino-American relations and demographic shifts are believed to be at play.
The suspended adoptions could prove collateral damage in the mounting hostility between the US and China. Many families and children have waited years for the process to be completed.
Nevertheless, Beijing has told US diplomats in China that it “will not continue to process cases at any stage” other than those covered by an exception clause, according to the Associated Press.
The US State Department in early September said it was seeking written clarification from mainland authorities regarding the impact on intercountry adoption cases already in process.

In any event, the US lawmakers said, more needed to be done.
“We understand that the PRC may be continuing to process intercountry adoptions for families from other countries,” they wrote.
“Our hope is that American families will be provided the same opportunity and that the PRC’s participation in the [Hague] Convention is not going to end with heartbreak for families who won’t ever be united with their adoptive child and with vulnerable children left without the loving home that they knew they had.”
Both the US and China are parties to the Hague Convention on the protection of children and cooperation in respect of intercountry adoption, established to ensure that the best interests and rights of the child would be recognised and safeguarded.
The US leads the world in adopting children from China. More than 82,000 children have gone to American families since 1999.
Beijing previously suspended international adoptions in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Adoptions resumed only for children who had received travel authorisation before 2020, according to the State Department’s latest annual report on adoptions.


Marco Rubio defends Xi Jinping’s US visit as essential despite deep disagreements

US Air Force to shut down research centre focusing on Chinese military

China hawks grumble over Trump’s lavish welcome planned for Xi state visit

China CEOs to likely miss Xi’s US trip amid thin summit expectations

US-China relations

China adoption fallout: US lawmakers urge Biden to help families after Beijing ends scheme

Toddlers are brought out for a walk at an orphanage in Shanghai on November 21, 2005. Beijing started to allow foreigners to adopt children from China in 1992. Photo: Reuters

A worker cares for babies at an orphanage in Wuhu, Anhui province, on August 7, 2009. China suspended its foreign-adoption programme in August 2024. Photo: AFP

Adopted woman in race to find real parents reunites a father with twin daughters

South Korean adoptee Rebecca Kimmel, 49, is seen reflected in her artwork depicting twins at her home in Seattle, US, on February 3, 2024. Kimmel believes her adoption agency switched her identity with another girl, and that she may have a twin. Photo: AP

Kimmel works on a drawing at her art studio. Photo: AP

Kimmel (right), who now helps other adoptees, and fellow adoptee Sarah Butcher examine Butcher’s adoption documents at Kimmel’s art studio. Photo: AP

‘Like losing a child’: what is the cost of China’s sudden ban on international adoptions?

Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

Kathy Rice had waited five years to adopt. Photo: Kathy Rice

China officially ends adoption scheme for foreign families

Tens of thousands of Chinese children have been adopted by foreign families since the process started in the 1980s.  Photo: AP

China-US divide bridged as adopted kids play lacrosse for motherland – thanks to Instagram

Kit Pingyu Zanelli (right) in action for China at the World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship. Photo: HKCLA

Kit Pingyu Zanelli representing China at the world U20 championship in Hong Kong. Photo: HKCLA

Sara Junlan Curley (right), another of the four spotted in North America and now playing for China. Photo: HKCLA

China’s players gather for a team talk at the world U20 championship at Hong Kong Football Club. Photo: HKCLA

China boy lost 28 years ago in railway station, adopted by Dutch couple, in epic search for birth family

A PhD student who was separated from his family aged four and was adopted by a Dutch couple has finally been reunited with his birth parents after a 12-year search for them. Photo: SCMP composite/Douyin

Gouming Martens was adopted by a Dutch couple from an orphanage in China at the age of four. Photo: Sydney Today

Gouming photographed with his birth parents before he was lost at a busy railway station. Photo: Sydney Today

It took a 12-year search before Gouming was finally reunited with his birth family. Photo: Sydney Today

News

China

Diplomacy

World

United States & Canada

Knowledge

US-China Relations

Some 300 children on mainland had been matched with adoptive American families when the ban was announced in August


Some 300 children on mainland had been matched with adoptive American families when the ban was announced in August.


China adoption fallout: US lawmakers urge Biden to help families after Beijing ends scheme

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Some 300 children on mainland had been matched with adoptive American families when the ban was announced in August

Some 300 children on mainland had been matched with adoptive American families when the ban was announced in August