‘End of an era’: China abruptly ends all international adoptions without explanation

The Chinese government has abruptly ended its international adoption program, ceasing all in-process and future international adoptions without citing a reason. The announcement comes as the country faces an overall population decline it is attempting to reverse after decades of coercive population control, sex-selective abortion, and forced abortion. In 2023, the number of newborns in China fell to 9.02 million.

During a briefing on Thursday, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said Beijing will no longer allow international adoptions of children from China unless the child is being adopted into biologically related families or step-families. “We express our appreciation to those foreign governments and families, who wish to adopt Chinese children, for their good intention and the love and kindness they have shown,” she said. All pending adoptions have been canceled as a result of the decision, except for those that had already been issued travel authorizations.

U.S. families adopted 82,674 children from China between 1999 and 2023, more than from any other foreign nation. Overall, 160,000 children from China have been adopted out to families in other nations since the country first allowed international adoption in 1992.

The Chinese government said that the decision is on trend with other nations, such as Denmark and Norway, which have also announced they are slowing down or stopping international adoptions — and which are also experiencing birth rate and population decreases.

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While no specific reason was given for the decision to cease international adoptions, the number of adoptions out of the country had dropped in recent years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, and due to changes in China’s government, economic situation, and falling birth rate, international adoptions had slowed drastically. After the pandemic led to two years of no international adoptions, between October 2022 and September 2023, only 16 adoption visas were issued by the U.S. consulate from China.

U.S. diplomats in China said the Chinese government “will not continue to process cases at any stage.”

“We understand there are hundreds of families still pending completion of their adoption, and we sympathize with their situation,” said the U.S. State Department. It added that it is seeking more information and clarification from China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs in writing.

The Nanchang Project, a U.S.-based organization that works with Chinese adoptees and their adoptive parents, said, “It is our profound hope that the remaining children in China receive the attention, medical care, and love they deserve.” The group called China’s decision “the end of an era.”

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