The one child policy created this nightmare, adoption added to the problem, most girls were killed/aborted but those who would have been left over in orphans to grow up to be future wives, were sent overseas. Normally those girls would have been unmarriable, growing up an orphan is seen as a great sign of shame in China. But when you have few girls to pick from, well there goes being picky. I have no idea how many girls are being traffic outside of China but I remember reading somewhere that about 190 children are kidnapped each day. Most are sold to other Chinese families in a different province. Some are also sold to foreign citizens who can pay, many of them were turned down by the Chinese government to adopt due to being unfit PAP’s.

Hopefully China will completely shut down foreign adoption and that may lighten the kidnappings of the girls. What would help the most would be to remove the one child rule (although it has been changed to 2 in many rural areas). Reducing the pollutions levels and making work environments safe would have a major impact on the infertility rate. Also better assistance for the elderly so women didn’t have to work until there parents died before marrying. This would also reduce the pressure to have a male child, hopefully lowering the kidnapping of Chinese boys. Adoption didn’t create the current problem in China, China would have been screwed even if they had barred adoption by foreigners. But allowing foreign adoption to continue in the current climate is helping to fuel the kidnapping and trafficking of children. Nobody who believes in ethical adoption would consider adopting a Chinese child or any international adopts either, this problem is not a Chinese only issue. Rani

The causes are social and economic inequality, political repression, deeply ingrained sexism, and an oppressive One Child Policy that denies people reproductive freedom and makes them unable to keep and protect children they would otherwise care for.

The adoption overseas of an excessive number of Chinese girls who would otherwise be contributing to a more sustainable demographic balance is one symptom. Forced abortion, infanticide, kidnapping and trafficking, and minimizing the role of women and girls are other symptoms.

How to “help” in China is complicated. Just sending money into the hands of the regime doing the repressing is counterproductive. Sponsorship programs can be helpful if they’re legit, and governments can exert political pressure, but there’s a limit to how much foreign nationals can really do to force political change in a country where they are not citizens.

Just banning adoption from China would not be enough to solve the problem. China needs political and social change at the most basic level, to allow their citizens the freedom to care for their own children. A stronger social safety net needs to be in place within the country. Chinese citizens need to be encouraged to care for the orphans in their own country. The issues in China that have led to this problem run VERY deep, and unfortunately there is no single easy answer.

Broad social change is needed, including in the area of adoption, but not limited to that area. If we really want to see the “big picture,” we can’t just stop at adoption and look no further; we have to look at the factors that have led to China exporting so many of its children. We can’t mistake the consequence for the cause, and for a solution to be viable, it needs to address the root issues that led to the situation. monkeykitty83

Tbh, I know not an awful lot about the Chinese problems, but seems a good site to peruse. 7rin