China's Quiet Export: Children By 1979, with the national population close to 1 billion, the Chinese government imposed a policy to limit each family...

China’s Quiet Export: Children

By 1979, with the national population close to 1 billion, the Chinese

government imposed a policy to limit each family to a single child.

Exceptions have been allowed only if a parent belongs to an ethnic

minority or both parents are only children.

Many Chinese parents prefer sons to daughters. Sons carry on the

family's ancestral name, while daughters do not. They are responsible to

care for their parents, which is important in a country with limited social

security assistance. Especially in rural areas, the thinking that “raising a

daughter is like watering someone else's fields” is deep-rooted.1

With the advent of the one-child policy, illegal ultrasound scanning to

determine babies’ gender became widespread. For instance, between

2000-03, authorities in Huaiyuan County, Anhui Province, prosecuted 50

officials and doctors and closed 215 clinics for performing ultrasound

scanning and selective abortion.2

Despite such enforcement, the consequence of the one-child policy

combined with the societal preference for male children has been a sharp

gender imbalance in births. According to the 2000 census, for every 1,000

new-born girls, there were 1,168.6 boys.

For a woman who bears an unwanted child, there are few options.

To quote Vice Minister Pan Guiyu of the State Population and Family

Planning Commission: “Some rural people just dumped female infants

outside orphanages immediately after their birth”.3 An estimated 95% of

the children available for adoption are female.4

Besides females, handicapped babies and those with obvious

medical or cosmetic problems are also abandoned. Parents may not wish

to “waste” their one-child quota on a baby with cloudy prospects.5

U.S. parents adopt around 120,000 children a year, of whom one in

six originates from foreign countries. The largest source, China,

accounted for over 6,800.6

1 “Gender imbalance prompts more care for girls in China”, Xinhua, 24 October 2003.

2 Xinhua, op. cit.

3 Xinhua, op. cit.

4 Great Wall China Adoption, website, March 2004.

5 Bazzoli, “International Chinese Adoption”, Shared Blessings, Winter 1998,

http://www.night.net/rosie/9802-ics-article1.html op. cit.

© 2004, I.P.L. Png 2

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Year

No. of adoptions of Chinese

children by US parents

U.S. adoptive parents favor China as a source for children because

“compared to domestic adoptions, the process is relatively short (about 18

months), uncomplicated, fairly certain to result in the assignment of a girl

and unlikely to result in a birthparent returning to claim the child.” 7

Another reason is that: “Chinese children have been well cared for

and are generally healthy. Birth mothers typically live a simple life on a

farm or in the country and have little access to drugs or alcohol.” 8

U.S. families seeking to adopt a Chinese child must apply through

an adoption agency to the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA).9 The

CCAA matches parents with available children and sends pictures and

medical records to the applicants through the adoption agency. All

children are screened for HIV and Hepatitis B.

The costs of adoption include a fee of about US$6000 to the

adoption agency, a donation of US$3000 to the orphanage, fees for

passport, notarization, and certification, and one parent’s travel to China.

One adoption agency estimates the total cost to be US$19,000-22,000.10

6 http://travel.state.gov/orphan_numbers.html

7 Bazzoli, op. cit.

8 Great Wall China Adoption, website, March 2004.

9 http://www.china-ccaa.org/

10 Family Resource Center and Homecoming Adoptions, websites, March 2004.

© 2004, I.P.L. Png 3

In Singapore, an average of 700 children are adopted each year, of

whom six in ten originate from foreign countries. By agreement between

the Chinese and Singapore governments, effective from April 2004, all

Singaporeans seeking to adopt Chinese children must apply to the CCAA

through two authorized agencies – Fei Yue Community Services and

Touch Community Services. The procedures take 11-12 months and cost

about US$10,000. 11

Prior to 2004, Singaporeans could adopt Chinese children through

commercial agencies. These allowed applicants to visit China to choose

their child. The Greenhouse Adoption Agency charged between

USD$10,500-13,000 for a child from China or Indonesia.12 By contrast,

CCAA offers adoptive parents only one child, based on their preferences

over gender, age, and provincial origin.

Mr Julius Tan, who attended a forum on the CCAA procedures

remarked, “What happens if we don't like the child at first look? … It's

human nature to want to choose. We have to be sure we make the right

choice, for adoption is a lifetime commitment.” 13

11 “Sorry, no choosing allowed”, Straits Times, March 27, 2004.

12 “Baby adoption agency does it without profit”, Straits Times, February 17, 2004.

13 “Sorry, no choosing allowed”, Straits Times, March 27, 2004.

© 2004, I.P.L. Png 4

Discussion Questions

1. On what dimensions of an adopted child is there asymmetric

information between the adoptive parents and the mother who gave

birth to the child (“birth mother”)? To what extent does this information

asymmetry also arise between the adoptive parents and an orphanage?

2. Referring to the combination of the one-child policy and societal

preference for male children, explain why children available for adoption

from China are relatively healthier than those from other countries.

Would this still be true if Chinese parents had no preference for male or

female children?

3. In the case of children available for adoption from China, is the extent of

adverse selection greater among male or female children?

4. What measures can parents wishing to adopt Chinese children take to

resolve their asymmetry of information?

5. How would vigorous enforcement against ultrasound gender scanning

and selection abortions affect China’s supply of children for adoption?