Those who struggle adopted in China

He Hua, a woman in Sichuan, had a disease that could not give birth, but always wanted to have children. In 2021, her sister told him that an unmarried woman was pregnant and could not take care of the baby, agreed to let him adopt.

He went with this woman to the hospital in Chengdu, where the baby was born. The woman said she would leave the city after birth and confirm that later she would not contact her.

But he quickly disappointed when he could not formate the adoption of the baby through the Department of the main population and the local police, because he did not meet the criteria to be allowed to adopt the adoption.

Local officials said the mother needs to be present during this process, and this person must be a disabled, or serious illness, to be able to give up the baby legally.

Chinese media noted that many people have similar problems when trying to adopt their adoption through private and unofficial channels.

In fact, the process of adoption through children’s welfare organizations is relatively simple, but most children in these organizations are disabled and many families are incompetent. Willing to take care of them.

Most families who adopted their adoption through unofficial channels could not provide the necessary documents, such as birth certificates or written statements from their parents, to ensure the child has a household registration.

China has a strict adoption law due to concerns about children’s protection, especially the risk of children’s trading.

The crimes of trading of children are strictly imposed on penalties. In 2024, Yu Huinging was sentenced to death for selling 17 children abducted in the 1990s. In 2023, three officials of Ha Nam province, central China, sentenced to prison for participating in collecting and selling birth certificates Illegally to get household registration for children.

However, observers show these barriers that make the number of children in the care facilities significantly higher number of people approved for adoption.

According to the latest data of the main population department in 2023, China had 144,000 orphans waiting to be adopted, but only 8,000 families registered to accept adoption. There is no data on other groups of children waiting to be adopted.

Some localities have admitted that many children are not taken care of properly by their parents. To solve, some places set up abandoned children. Here, parents can silently leave their children to the care station. However, these efforts were abandoned, because local establishments did not have enough resources.

Theo China Youth Dailythe restricted adoption channels have led to “there are many cases of unofficial and illegal adoption nationwide”.

Having faced difficulties, he in Sichuan came to a group of women who were trying to solve similar problems on WeChat.

The teammaker is Wei Ximei, family consultant in Trinh Chau, Ha Nam, Central China. Wei recently successfully solved the legal issue for Niuniu, her adopted daughter. Niuniu’s mother hired wei to be a nanny, then collected money and disappeared.

Wei decided to raise Niuniu and his two children. Three years later, Wei contacted the local media for help, when preparing to register for Niuniu into kindergarten and could not get a household registration for her.

The story of Wei’s mother spread. The police helped to find his biological mother, while a local kindergarten proposed to support the household registration for Niuniu. This process took a year, although in some cities only took a few days.

After the story was public, dozens of women contacted Wei, sharing difficulties in asking for household registration for adoption.

The law on adoption has changed over time with China’s population policies. The country applied a one -child policy before abolishing 2015. China then raised the limit to give birth to two children, and then three children in 2021.

Previously, the law stated that children under 14 years of age may be adopted without a legal guardian or parents who have “special difficulties” in caring for children. The adopted recipient must be over 30 years old, without children and is considered to be “capable of raising children”.

A new order was issued in 2023, two years after the three children were valid, stating that their parents needed to make a statement that they could not raise their children and explain their problems. Court recipients also need to apply for a certificate from the local government clearly stating how many children they have and confirm their ability to raise children.

The Civil Code enacted by 2020 stipulates that adoptive parents must “have no children or have only one child”, without a criminal record or “illness that makes them unable to raise their children”.

Lu Yu, the lawyer of the Beijing Qianqian Law Firm, specializes in protecting women’s rights, arguing that these requirements are more consistent with the two children’s policies rather than three children. Lu also said that the language of the law is too general and vague. Therefore, local governments often issue separate regulations to complete the details.

“The law says that people who have a ‘special difficulty’ can let their children adopted, but exactly what it is? Going to prison is considered difficult? not? ”, Lu said.

Lawyers and advocacy calls for Chinese officials to update the adoption to suit the current situation.

Others think that it is necessary to keep strict regulations. Wang Zhenyao, head of the Humanitarian Research Institute at Beijing Pedagogical University, emphasized the highest priority to avoid damaging children.

“The rules of adoption in the world are very strict. This process needs to take children as a focus, ensuring their rights are protected. People with dignity, cannot be considered as goods.” , Mr. Wang said.

But Wei thinks that there are other aspects that need to be considered. She talked about a friend who had to go out to work, leaving her daughter at home alone because she could not find anyone to look young. The girl died in an accident at home.

Earlier, the mother sent a girl to another family, but they refused after they could not get a household registration for her. Wei said this case made her especially sad and she visited the girl’s resting place.

“I often wonder, if the child’s household registration problem is solved, is she still alive?”, Wei said.