Sending Countries

China has long been recognised as one of the world’s leading sending countries for international adoptions. Over the past three decades, it is estimated that around 160,000 children were given for adoption abroad, with approximately 13,000 adoptions recorded in 2005 alone.[1] The principal receiving countries included the United States, several European countries and Australia.[2] This trend was formalised through the 1992 Adoption Law, introduced because of state concerns regarding overpopulation. The main reason behind this implementation being the well-known One Child  , introduced in 1979, which, combined with the cultural preference for sons, led to many unwanted female children.[3]

Intercountry adoption became a very lucrative practice, with foreign families paying substantial fees to adopt Chinese children. This contributed to the alleged confiscation of children by local governments, driven both by financial incentives and by the state’s effort to manage overpopulation through what was effectively the exportation of “excess” children. This situation began to change when the infertility rate arose in the country and adoption rules tightened in 2007. Both these developments led to a decrease in international adoptions, which were then totally stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic.[4]

On 28^th August 2024, China announced the formal end of their intercountry adoption policy, stating that the government had adjusted the “cross-border adoption policy to be in line with international trends”.[5] It is important to note, however, that no government investigations have been conducted to evaluate past adoption practices, and the reference to “international trends” does not acknowledge any irregularities or abuses behind this reasoning. Even more interesting to note is that responses to the closure of intercountry adoptions in China have ranged from shock to relief, reflecting divided global perceptions.[6]

Despite multiple scandals reported in international media, including allegations that Chinese agencies bought or kidnapped children to place them for international adoption, China has never formally addressed these claims nor initiated any official investigations into past practices.[7]

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[1] Yi Fuxian, ‘China Shuts Down Its International Adoption Machine’ (Project Syndicate, 13 September 2024) <https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-banned-foreign-adoption-to-ease-severe-demographic-crisis-by-yi-fuxian-2024-09> accessed 16 November 2025.

[2] ‘End of an Era: China’s International Adoption Program’ (The Nanchang Project, 9 September 2024) <https://www.nanchangproject.com/blog/end-of-an-era-chinas-international-adoption> accessed 16 November 2025.

[3] Isabella Kahn, ‘Chinese Intercountry Adoption: How One Law Changed the Lives of Hundreds of Thousands of Kids’ (TeenVogue, 23 July 2025) <https://www.teenvogue.com/story/chinese-intercountry-adoption-law-kids> accessed 16 November 2025.

[4] Yi Fuxian, ‘China Shuts Down Its International Adoption Machine’ (Project Syndicate, 13 September 2024) <https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-banned-foreign-adoption-to-ease-severe-demographic-crisis-by-yi-fuxian-2024-09> accessed 16 November 2025.

[5] Farah Master, ‘China stops foreign adoptions of its children after three decades’ (Reuters, 7 September 2024) <https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-stops-foreign-adoptions-its-children-after-three-decades-2024-09-06/> accessed 16 November 2025.

[6] Emily Feng, ‘China ends most international adoptions. Reactions range from shock to relief’ (Npr, 17 October 2024) <https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/10/17/g-s1-28521/china-adoption-international> accessed 16 November 2025.

[7] Sushma Subramanian and Deborah Jian Lee, ‘Black-Market Babies: Broken Families in China, Confused Children in the US’ (The Atlantic, 27 October 2011) <https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/black-market-babies-broken-families-in-china-confused-children-in-the-us/247329/> accessed 16 November 2025; Barbara Demick, ‘Stolen Chinese babies supply adoption demand’ (Los Angeles Times, 20 September 200) <https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-sep-20-fg-china-adopt20-story.html> accessed 16 November 2025; Scott Tong, ‘The dark side of Chinese adoptions’ (MarketPlace, 6 May 2010) <https://www.marketplace.org/story/2010/05/05/dark-side-chinese-adoptions> accessed 16 November 2025.