China Adoption: 2009 and Now

In November 2009, Rally attended a local China-adoption sponsored event about the status of China Adoptions. Expecting to be one of dozens of people and to hear about the nuts and bolts of the process, Rally instead had an eye-opening experience. The number of attendees could be counted on one hand and none were prospective parents–the very people who most needed to hear about the status of the country of their choice. The speaker was someone with excellent credentials and many years of experience working in China. In other words, the speaker was very well-informed about the reality of Chinese adoptions at that time.

This is a summary of what Rally was told:

*The number and location of the orphanages that had previously been placing kids was going to change dramatically. Only about a quarter of the government-run orphanages were participating in international adoption. One-third of those merged, changed names, or no longer had kids in them! Now the CCAA was going to have a larger mission. They were to be in charge of all domestic and IA adoptions for all 1035 orphanages. They were going to have to set up a national social worker network and training-essentially national foster care. The kids would now be coming from these different 750 orphanages, many of which were private ones like those run by monks that are in horrible conditions—conditions as bad as or worse than the original Romanian orphanages. That is why the speaker predicted that most children would be special needs children. She said that prospective parents had their heads in sand about this—her point proven by the lack of attendance by any PAPs at this particular seminar.

*In 2007, CCAA constructed a new office building that was ten to fifteen stories tall. They would be adding a “Peking duck” restaurant on the first floor so that the “head of the ministry” could make some money from that. CCAA actually owns a four-star hotel as well. Speculation was that some adoption fee money went for those enterprises and not to the orphanages for which they were intended.

*In 2009, it was estimated that 10,000 children per year were being domestically adopted. Of the special needs newborns, about 1/3 would die, 1/3 would be parented by their original parents, and only 1/3 were being abandoned to orphanages. These statistics are not what Rally had heard coming from adoption agencies. Agency marketing spin made claims that over 1 million children were abandoned in orphanages, that domestic adoption never occurred or was impossibly difficult in China, and that all special needs kids go to orphanages–not just 1/3.

*The future of China adoptions would be “All healthy boys, with some healthy girls funneled to domestic adoption.” The rest would be for international adoption.

*Like PAPs, adoptive parents had their “heads in the sand” about health issues, and they did not yet pin that as an *agency* responsibility. She had received calls from adoptive parents who just adopted and were already wanting to disrupt while still on their two-week trip in China. Her advice was: “Don’t disrupt here but wait until you get back home to do it in your own state.” [Bear in mind that anyone doing so is committing a felony in the form of visa fraud.] She also lamented that US social services should expect a wave of special needs kids and they were in no way prepared for it.

*In three northern regions where referrals were starting, many children had folic acid issues, with 50-60 percent having spinal tube defects, likely due to mold on corn that the pregnant women eat. She also said that the rate of Hepatitis C was extremely high so that would be a major issue that prospective parents should not be surprised to see in their referred children.

*Trafficking took place from the South to the North because it was OBVIOUS that the trafficked kids had distinct facial differences from the kids in the local province. Again, for the Chinese or those familiar with Chinese faces, it was OBVIOUS BY LOOKS when a child was not from a particular province. Not surprisingly, she was getting daily emails from adoptive parents asking about the chances of their child being trafficked.

*Large agencies were getting a “load of special needs referrals by design”–but those big agencies were not prepping parents well.

Now, read all of the above again. Look at the date: November 2009. That was two years ago. An industry-connected speaker nonchalantly expressed this devastating information in public.

What makes Rally so angry is that China is only just starting to be seen as the monster it is – but the evidence was there ALL ALONG AND ALL THE PLAYERS KNEW IT.

Just as guilty are the PAPs and adoptive parents who refused to admit the possibility of all this corruption and trafficking, and who are still denying or downplaying it.

REFORM Puzzle Piece