US lawmakers are pushing President Joe Biden to intercede on behalf of American families whose child-adoption process in China was under way when Beijing closed off the programme to foreigners about two months ago.
In an open letter, the 103 lawmakers comprising Democrats and Republicans, appealed for the families who were “left in a state of uncertainty about the completion of their adoption” from China.
They also voiced concern for the Chinese children already matched with the American families. Beijing in late August said foreign adoptions from China would no longer proceed.
Some 300 children on the mainland, many of whom are disabled, had been matched with adoptive families in the US when the ban was announced.
China ends foreign adoption
Lawmakers and others have argued that this could be the children’s last chance to to be cared for by a family, as their chances of being adopted domestically are low.
“We request that you act in the best interest of these children and families by urging the PRC to fulfil and uphold the commitment the country has made,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Biden.
Beijing has offered no clear explanation for its decision to halt the three-decade-old foreign-adoption programme. Strained Sino-American relations and demographic shifts are believed to be at play.
The suspended adoptions could prove collateral damage in the mounting hostility between the US and China. Many families and children have waited years for the process to be completed.
Nevertheless, Beijing has told US diplomats in China that it “will not continue to process cases at any stage” other than those covered by an exception clause, according to the Associated Press.
The US State Department in early September said it was seeking written clarification from mainland authorities regarding the impact on intercountry adoption cases already in process.
In any event, the US lawmakers said, more needed to be done.
“We understand that the PRC may be continuing to process intercountry adoptions for families from other countries,” they wrote.
“Our hope is that American families will be provided the same opportunity and that the PRC’s participation in the [Hague] Convention is not going to end with heartbreak for families who won’t ever be united with their adoptive child and with vulnerable children left without the loving home that they knew they had.”
Both the US and China are parties to the Hague Convention on the protection of children and cooperation in respect of intercountry adoption, established to ensure that the best interests and rights of the child would be recognised and safeguarded.
The US leads the world in adopting children from China. More than 82,000 children have gone to American families since 1999.
Beijing previously suspended international adoptions in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Adoptions resumed only for children who had received travel authorisation before 2020, according to the State Department’s latest annual report on adoptions.
EN 
ZH