Foreign adoptions from China fall

Enlarge Reuters file U.S. women walk with their newly adopted Chinese babies in Guangzhou, China. More Chinese couples have started to adopt Chinese babies, which may eventually bring an end to Americans adopting children from the country.

Researchers in China say local data and anecdotal evidence show what sketchy national statistics don't: that record numbers of Chinese are adopting.

Foreign adoptions are an embarrassment to the government, says Pi Yijun, a scholar at the China University of Politics and Law. "Even researchers do not get the national figures, only local numbers. (The government) strictly controls data like this, and the total number of adoptions is very secret."

China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, which oversees adoptions, confirms that foreign adoptions peaked in 2005 and are declining.

"It is partly because there are less children who (are abandoned and) can be adopted, and partly because the volume of domestic adoptions has risen," says Wang Suying, a ministry official.

The surge in domestic adoptions coincides with tighter rules for Americans and other foreigners looking to adopt Chinese children.

In May, China moved to disqualify foreign applicants who are single, overweight or older than 50. At the same time, the backlog of foreign applications in Beijing has grown to more than two years and prompted some to pull out.

Some Americans "are moving to other options or deciding that adoption wasn't in the cards for them," says Joni Garner, mother of two adopted Chinese girls and case manager for AAC Adoption and Family Network in Berthoud, Colo.

Why Chinese are adopting:

•Growing affluence: As many as 250 million of China's 1.3 billion people are part of a growing middle class. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says 40% of Chinese will be middle class by 2020.

"Better economic conditions mean more Chinese are able to bear the financial burden," says Ji Gang, director of domestic adoptions at the China Center of Adoption Affairs, a government agency.

•Changing attitudes: Deep-rooted prejudices against taking in children who aren't blood relatives have begun to fade, as have historic biases against girls.

"The importance of continuing the family line is eroding as China modernizes," says Hung Huang, a Beijing publisher who adopted a girl last year. "Traditionally, Chinese felt that orphans signaled shame."

•Empty nesters: Urban couples, restricted to a single child by a 3-decade-old law, are adopting after their natural children reach adulthood and leave home.

"People want to have more than one child but cannot under the family-planning policy," Ji says. "Adopting or fostering gives them a way."

Booming interest in domestic adoptions has given rise to a loosely regulated market for infants. Websites such as Orphan Net offer forums for prospective parents.

Wang Hongbin, a lighting salesman in eastern Anhui province, says he and his wife posted an ad for a daughter on Orphan Net after unsuccessful fertility treatments.

He says they are willing to pay up to $1,400 to adopt a healthy child — a huge sum in a country where the government puts the average annual wage at $2,296.