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CV NEWS FEED // The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on September 5 that it will no longer allow Chinese children to be placed for adoption in other countries, citing international trends, according to Reuters.
Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mao Ning made the announcement on Thursday, briefly outlining the implications of the decision.
“Apart from the adoption of a child or stepchild of blood relatives of the same generation who are within three generations of foreigners coming to China to adopt, China will not send children abroad for adoption,” she said, according to Reuters.
“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 added.
Reuters reported that in May, the Netherlands banned its citizens from adopting children from other countries.
Since 1992, when the Chinese government implemented its one-child policy, a reported estimate of over 160,000 Chinese children have been adopted by overseas families, The New York Times reported. The majority of children placed for adoption were girls or children with special needs.
The number of Chinese children placed for adoption had begun to shrink in recent years due to the country’s plummeting birth rate, going from roughly 44,000 in 2009 to roughly 15,000 in 2018, The Times reported.
According to data from earlier this year, China’s current total fertility rate is roughly one child per woman, well below the 2.1 child per woman ratio generally understood to be the minimum needed to maintain a stable population.
CatholicVote previously reported that the Chinese birth rate has lowered so much that several hospitals have closed their obstetrics department. The country’s government is attempting to encourage more young couples to marry and have children.
