According to the U.S. Department of State, there were 4,108 children adopted from the People's Republic of China ("PRC") by U.S. citizens in 1999, the earliest year for which I have numbers. The numbers of adoptions swelled until 2005, when State said there were 7,903 such adoptions -- but other sources put the number as high as 14,496. The total number of children adopted by U.S. families from China decreased steadily after that, but still numbered in the thousands -- until the PRC began changing the rules, making it much more difficult for anyone to adopt a child without special needs.
The bell really began to toll for adoptions from the PRC when State reported only 1,475 in 2018... a number which then plummeted to just 202(!) in 2020, and zero in 2021. The pandemic accounted for most of this, but the system had already begun to shut down, and it never came back to anything near previous levels when the PRC "reopened" post-pandemimonium.
As recently as the June/July timeframe of this year, the CCWA (the PRC's governmental department responsible for administering foreign adoptions) was setting even more draconian limits on foreign adoptions, with only four U.S. agencies being authorized to participate and the "Waiting List" of special needs children being phased out to be transitioned to a special website that, quite frankly, sounded almost like a dating app where little more than a photo and some very basic information for each child would be available for families to choose from.
At least, that was the direction things were moving in; that final "dating app" transition will apparently never take place.
Just a few days ago, the U.S. Department of state released the following notice (emphasis is mine):
The Department of State received a notification from the People's Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) stating the following:
...beginning August 28, 2024, except for foreigners adopting stepchildren and children of collateral relatives within three generations in China, civil affairs departments across China will no longer carry out foreign adoption work.
Upon receiving this information via a formal note, we spoke with the MCA on September 2. The MCA verbally stated to U.S. consulate staff in Guangzhou that this announcement applies to all pending adoptions as well as those being considered in the future. The MCA told us they completed processing of all cases with previously issued travel authorizations and will not continue to process cases at any stage, other than the collateral relative exceptions noted above. Our embassy in the PRC will request the information we received verbally in writing so we can be certain we understand PRC policies going forward and share them with you.
We know this is a devastating notice to many of you who have been waiting for years to complete an adoption in the PRC. We never wish to be the bearer of bad news, but we are committed to transparency and wanted to share this information with you as we received it. We understand the distress this announcement will cause you and our hearts are with you.
What this means is that several hundred U.S. families who are already in the adoption process are having the door slammed in their faces... and that stories like Miriam's are now relegated to the history books.
I've tried before to communicate the stress, the anguish, the pain that were all integral parts of The Wait, but I truly cannot imagine the kind of absolute, devastating heartbreak being experienced by families who were in the process but had not yet received travel authorization from the PRC. My heart -- the hearts of all of us in this family, and our extended family of the "MITs" and other families whose children were born in China -- hurt for them, and for the children who will now never be part of a loving forever family.
Wishing you all love and peace –
