A New Scandal
I’m still organizing my thoughts on this. I posted some of how I feel in the forum yesterday. I found a few news articles that outline a bit more details, and I’m going to post them in their entirety here. I normally only post excerpts of news articles, but for some reason I want these preserved here.
I will say that I’m disappointed that the only repercussions to those involved appear to be to their jobs. Based on some of the facts that have been presented, I think a few people should have seen criminal charges and trial.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/03/content_11648503.htm
GUIYANG, July 3 (Xinhua) — A joint work team including family planning, civil affairs, police and disciplinary officials are investigating a scandal in which babies were sent overseas from southwest China’s Guizhou Province for adoption, an official told Xinhua Friday.
Yang Jiesheng, deputy secretary general of the Qiandongnan Prefecture government and deputy head of the work team, said that the public orphanage in Zhenyuan County was suspected of violating rules in accepting so-called abandoned babies.
Orphanages are supposed to take in abandoned babies after someone declares the finding of an abandoned baby and the declaration is confirmed by police. In the Zhenyuan case, at least three babies were taken away from the homes of their relatives or even their own parents.
The orphanage has taken in 81 abandoned babies since June 1995,of which 60 were adopted by foreign families, said Han Hui, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee in Qiandongnan Prefecture.
The orphanage was awarded 3,000 U.S. dollars for each child placed with a foreign family.
Meanwhile, six local party and government officials have been punished this week for their roles in the scandal, Han said.
Wang Daohua, former assistant head of Jiaoxi Township, Zhenyuan County and now head of the work committee of departments under the CPC Zhenyuan county committee, was dismissed from post for “direct liability,” Han said.
The township’s deputy head Tian Rongbao, the head of the township’s family planning office Tian Shiwu and family planning official Shi Guangying were demoted, she said.
The township’s former party chief Pan Jianguo received a serious warning and the then government head Wu Changqing received a demerit for “leadership responsibility.”
Han said the prefectural Party disciplinary commission received a report in February that three babies were missing in Jiaoxi Township.
Initial investigation showed that Jiaoxi family planning officials sent three baby girls from different families, whose parents violated the nation’s family planning rules in the pursuit of a male heir, to the county’s orphanage in 2004. Two girls were then sent overseas for adoption in 2006 and the other in 2007.
The families could have been fined thousands of U.S. dollars for having an extra child, which is an unbearable burden for many families in the impoverished Guizhou Province.
In rural China, families are allowed to have a second baby if the first is a girl. However, some families keep on having babies until the birth of a boy.
One of three baby girls was the third child in the family of Li Zeji. Li had two girls before her and one girl and one boy after her.
Li would not pay the fine of 40,000 yuan (5,865 U.S. dollars) brought forth by the birth of the girl, so he sent her to his cousin when the baby was 36 days old in March 2004, according to media reports.
Li’s cousin told local family planning officials, who found the girl at his home, that the girl was abandoned. The girl was then sent by the officials to the orphanage on April 20, 2004 and adopted on Jan. 7, 2007.
The second baby girl went through a similar experience before she was adopted at the age of three on Dec. 10, 2006.
Family planning officials also persuaded a mother to give up a baby, who was then sent to the orphanage and adopted at the age of three in December 2006.
It was not known how much the family planning officials benefited from the adoptions.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-07/03/content_8350825.htm
About 80 newborn baby girls from a county of Guizhou Province in southwest China have been removed from their families by local officials since 2001, and most have been handed over to foreign adoptive parents as orphans at a price of $3,000 each, the Southern Metropolis News reported on Wednesday.
Among the 80 families are Lu Xiande and Yang Shuiying, a poor farming couple whose fifth daughter was removed by local family planning officials when they didn’t pay the appropriate fine, it reported.
Gu Chengjun, who was later adopted by a woman from the Netherlands, sits on the lap of a caregiver in Zhenyuan Orphanage in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province in January, 2007. Bao Xiaodong SW China: Baby girls taken and sold for adoption
Like every other father in Zhenyuan, Lu wanted a boy, who finally arrived after three daughters. His wife then gave birth to another girl, and the couple had to support five children with a yearly income of about 5,000 yuan ($732).
Shi Guangying, a local family planning official, gave them an ultimatum: Give away their little daughter or pay fines of about 20,000 yuan ($2,928).
“This is the policy”, Shi said. “You pay, or you let the government take care of the baby,” he was quoted by the newspaper on Wednesday.
But instead of being raised as promised, the girl was taken to the Zhenyuan orphanage and later adopted out to a foreign family, at a reported price of $3,000.
At least 78 girls have been handed over to foreign families in the past eight years. Two children with disabilities remain at the orphanage.
It’s believed authorities forged documents stating the babies were orphans and adoption fees were split between the orphanage and officials.
The practice of making farmers who break the two-child policy and then fail to pay fines hand over their baby girls is now under investigation by the local public security bureau in Zhenyuan county.
Zhou Ze, a lawyer and professor with China Youth College for Political Sciences, said local family planning officials and the orphanage had committed a crime because nobody had the right to exploit a parent’s right of guardianship over their children.
The fact that babies had been removed to make a profit meant it was also abduction, Zhou said.
“It is legal that they can charge fines, as the parents did violate the law by giving birth to more than one child. But that doesn’t mean they can take away the child. The fines can be paid later or reduced”, he said.
Tang Jian, an official of the Zhenyuan family planning bureau, said: “According to our investigation, it is true that babies who have parents were forced into the orphanage and then abroad”.
Under Chinese adoption law, abandoned babies whose parents cannot be found can be registered for adoption.
“The most important thing is that we need so many other government departments, so many, to help us in the investigation,” Liang Honghao, director of the Zhenyuan police bureau, was quoted by the Guangdong-based Time Weekly yesterday.
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
This is a very worrying situation!
The sloppy versions of this story are already being published! For example it was reported by the BBC in the UK, who I pay a license fee to!!!! Is not really a constructive piece giving a balanced view of the terrible situation!
For starters it had a headline – China babies ‘sold for adoption’.
In fact the BBC story reads more like officials confiscate babies, then sold to westerners!
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:43 pm
This is very upsetting to me. I would be so upset and sad to have my child removed. My heart hurts for all my fellow moms out there.
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Just very sad for all the girls and their families both birth and forever! I am speechless.
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
In theory this cheated the government out of fine money. I am suprised there isn’t more head rolling.
In some ways it sounds like we paid another’s fine in exchange for the baby.
I don’t see this as any more wrong than “making” a family abandon because they can’t pay the fine. I really think we are splitting hairs. Both seem heartbreaking to me.
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I don’t understand KMS – are you saying you’ve heard other stories of making families give their children up? Are you saying this is more widespread than what is being reported?
I have not heard anything to point to it being more widespread than these officials at this orphanage and in this city.
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
RQ- perhaps I’m not understanding what’s confusing to you. I thought that has been happening all along with the one child policy. When birth parents refuse to pay the fines for having more than one child (or now, I believe it’s two children if the first child is a girl) they are forced to either hide the child, flee, or give the child to the government. Am I missing something?
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:40 pm
This article would explain why so many people in China do not realize foreigners are adopting the children. It sounds as if they’re told, and believe, that when a child is taken out of the home, the government will raise the child (in the orphanage).
After adopting two children from China friend of mine and his wife went back to China to teach in a college for one year, and her professor colleagues assumed her children were just in her custody to avoid having to grow up in an orphanage, and after they were grown, they assumed that she was going to return the children to the Chinese government. These were educated people. So, one can only assume the regular folk think the same, at best.
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
If someone truly thought all of the babies in the orphanages that are available for adoption had been forcibly taken from their biological parents against the will of the biological parents… how could that person possibly get involved in the process?
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I read an interesting and thought provoking post on AskJane yesterday on these articles and topics
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/askjaneinchina/message/5652
Regards
Magnolia’s Friend
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:09 pm
RQ- I dont know if anyone thinks all the children there are “forcibly taken”. That certainly has not been said in this discussion. There are many reasons a child ends up in an orphanage. I believe most of the time, children are there because of abandonment. But as I understand it sometimes it’s because the birth parents do not abide by the one child policy.
I first learned about it before we adopted in 2005, while watching National Geographics, Lost Girls of China, with Lisa Ling. It’s an older video, but if someone has not watched it, it’s worth the watch.
July 3rd, 2009 at 8:33 pm
It is my understanding that children in excess of the policy are not recognized for the purpose of things like education, health care, etc. The kids are NOT forcibly taken. Of course families may choose to abandon a girl without the appearance of violating the policy – but in my mind that is very different than the government forcing the family to give up a child. I hope that this is not more widespread than the few girls in the story.
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
No.
I am saying I’m not sure which part is the shock? Is it the taking the child? Is it the fact they are adopted and not remaining in the orphanage as some were led to believe? Is it they are adopted internationally? Is it the provincial authories working against national government policy and lining their own pockets?
Whether the government takes the child when the fine isn’t paid or the parents abandon because they can’t pay the fine the child is without it’s biological parents who wanted them, that’s heartbreaking. Both senarios don’t sit well with me.
The one families fine was reported at just under 3,000USD. That was what prompted my comparison about the adoption fee and fine.
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Regardless of how our children come to the orphanages, they are all victims of circumstance. Every.Single.One.Of.Them.
If, after they arrive at the orphanage, in most cases, if not adopted, they will stay in the orphanage and never know their birth parents’ existence. I’m sure there are some exceptions, and very few might have the opportunity to be reunited with their birth parents if left in the orphanages. But the majority of them will never get that exception.
July 4th, 2009 at 8:18 am
There was a similar news story just a month or so prior to when we adopted our first daughter from China in 2000. We thought it would jeopardize our imminant trip at the time, but it didn’t. Now about a month away from receiving our referral these news casts appear. At the time in 2000, friends and co-workers were commenting on how terrible it was. It came to my mind that not too many years prior, in our own province, the provincial government was sterilizing young men and women who were mentally handicapped. And that was here in Canada!! We should be ashamed of our OWN histories! I am sure each country or geographical region has “skeletons” they wish didn’t happen, but as human beings, for whatever the reason may be at the time, we all have done some pretty embarassing things. What is interesting is that when we see what others do, we may not totally understand or grasp the cultural, economical, and political pressures faced by those folks. How could a mother give up her own child we think? Yet in the US and Canada and I am sure in other modern countries, we have women dumping their new born babies into trash cans, dumpsters, and ditches every year. Whose culture is better?? Maybe a matter of perspective. At least the babies are in China do get to an orphanage and then we get the wonderful privilege of adopting these sweet, beautiful little girls into our homes!!
July 4th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Thanks for posting the link to this article so that we could read this article in its entirety. There are other articles on the internet addressing this exact situation which paint the story as collusion to sell babies between corrupt orphanage officials and US and other foreign countries. Basically the jist of the articles portray the China officials of selling the babies for $3,000. None the less, this is a heart breaking story and an adoptive parents worst nightmare!
July 4th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I was around the China Adoption community in 2000, and I don’t remember there being any cases like this that involved the SWI’s or IA.
July 4th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I really do not know how to react about this so-called scandal.
Is it just another excuse to slow even more the international adoption process ?
I find it quite worrying from the title from the newspaper “Baby girls sold for international adoption”
The question is: how many baby girls sold for DOMESTIC adoption ?
Back to 1995, the proportion of babies directed to domestic adoption versus international adoption was 50/50. Currently, conservative figures would be more in the range of 80/20 (20 is the % for international adoption and this figure takes into account SN children).
From what we are being told by our agency,it takes about 4 to 6 month to a prospective family in China to adopt a child. Employees from the Chinese governement have an even faster track allowing to adopt a chold in less than two months.
Adopting parents from abroad have to wait several years.
What is the purpose of this rumour ? What is the purpose of this article ? Giving an excuse so that the next step would be “No more international adoption” ???
Our LID is in April 2006. We are so sad to-night after the recent speed-up.
Just another brick in the wall.
July 4th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I really do not know how to react about this so-called scandal.
Is it just another excuse to slow even more the international adoption process ?
I find it quite worrying from the title from the newspaper “Baby girls sold for international adoption”
The question is: how many baby girls sold for DOMESTIC adoption ?
Back to 1995, the proportion of babies directed to domestic adoption versus international adoption was 50/50. Currently, conservative figures would be more in the range of 80/20 (20 is the % for international adoption and this figure takes into account SN children).
From what we are being told by our agency,it takes about 4 to 6 months to a prospective family in China to adopt a child. Employees from the Chinese governement have an even faster track allowing to adopt a child in less than two months.
Adopting parents from abroad have to wait several years.
What is the purpose of this rumour ? What is the purpose of this article ? Giving an excuse so that the next step would be “No more international adoption” ???
Our LID is in April 2006. We are so sad to-night after the recent speed-up.
Just another brick in the wall.
July 4th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
RQ, the incident in 2000 may not have had anything directly to do with the IAs, but it could have had ripple effects into the adoption process. It involved a Chinese woman coming home from having a 2nd child(before the rural families were allowed to have 2). When she got home, a local official was waiting and drowned the baby right in front of the parents. Because it hit the news media and such an uproar was made internationally, we were told there was some speculation at the time that the adoption process would be put on hold as a means of reaction from the Chinese govt. Fortunately, it did not. The incident would have happened about July/Aug 2000.
July 5th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I don’t understand some of the comments on this post. This issue isn’t about those of us who are adopting and how it affects us. It is about a criminal act perpetrated on biological families in China.
July 5th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
In other words – not everything that happens in China is about IA. We are not the top priority. The biological families who want to keep their children should not have their children forcibly removed. That’s just the way I see it.
July 5th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Patiently Hopeful – I mentioned in the forum that it had been a long time since I’d heard reports of over-quota babies being killed, that I thought that practice had finally been stopped. Yes, I remember those cases from long ago, but those cases had nothing to do with IA. I also stated that the practice of forced abortions is now illegal as well, but that we do still hear of over-zealous officials still doing it (and losing their jobs for it, too). I do remember those stories in the 80′s and 90′s of already born babies and even toddlers being killed, it’s terrible, worse than terrible. Worse than criminal. But I’m not sure how you are correlating that to IA?
To my knowledge, this is the first we’ve had reports of babies being forcibly taken from families and then put into the IA program. If it were to come out that this was common practice then the consulate would likely stop allowing American citizens to adopt from China. As they should. Also, the Hague would step in on this one as well, which would likely stop all other countries from adopting. Again, as it should.
Ironically, this has nothing to do with what the various anti-IA squawkers have been squawking about, and yet, if it is widespread, then the program really should not be open. Looks like they were all squawking in the wrong direction.
However, I do not see a reason to believe this practice of officials taking over-quota babies from families and putting them into orphanages and then into the IA program is widespread. It appears this is the case of officials acting illegally. They had to forge documents, lie on police reports, etc. It sounds like the practice in this area has already been stopped, which means the US government isn’t likely to shut it down in this area for new abandonments, though they may request that babies abandoned during that time frame not be referred to US Citizens.
For those of you who seem to have thought this was common practice and see no reason to be upset about this, I just really don’t know what to say to you. I could not have adopted from the program had I thought children were being forcibly removed from their families. The population control laws no longer allow for that to happen. Sure, there are bound to be some older officials still doing things the old way illegally here and there. And as they get caught then there will be less and less. Just as with the areas where it comes out that forced abortions are still happening – those reports are fewer and farther between every year. And in the era of the internet we would expect to see more of them if the numbers were the same, not less of them. Less of them being reported speaks to a lot less of them happening.
Over all, the vast majority of babies are abandoned. They are in the SWI because their birth family chose to not raise them. If I believed any differently then I would have to be questioning whether the program should be open, as well.
I’ve personally investigated both of my daughter’s finding stories. I’ve spoken to the people who found them, read the actual police report, etc. (No police report on GG, it was too long ago, but there was one for TT.) At the time I did it so we would have that information. With all of these reports, I’m glad we did it so that my girls can at least know for sure that the story we were told is the true story.
Before I decide much more on a personal level about this issue, I really want to hear from the CCAA. I’m now thinking we may not hear from the US Consulate. Since the practice has already been stopped in this area, it is most likely they will investigate to make sure it has stopped and the people responsible are no longer in charge, get assurances from the CCAA that steps are being taken to discourage this practice elsewhere, and that will be it. But, I do hope to hear from the CCAA.
July 5th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
This isn’t the first time that i heard about this.It was a big newsitem in Holland in march 2008.We talked about it here on RQ.But what is worse ,abandon youre child because you are forced by the athorities or that youre child was taken by the autorities??? I am a mother of two chinese girls and it worries me a lot some times.We never know the hole truth and have too accept it and say that we did the best we could and know.
July 6th, 2009 at 9:02 am
RumorQueen: “Over all, the vast majority of babies are abandoned. They are in the SWI because their birth family chose to not raise them.”
Don’t get me wrong, having them forcibly taken makes my stomach turn, but we are kidding ourselves if we think our children come to us simply because a birth family chose not to raise them in a country that practices population control.
July 6th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Noendinsight-I agree. In a country where choice is not usually an option, the country enforces the one child policy somehow. Sometimes it’s by taking land away, sometimes it’s by forced abortion, sometimes it’s by putting other family members in jail till they comply, and sometimes it’s by paying the fines for keeping more children, and sometimes birth parents hide the child with extended family members, and the child in that case, never has a birth “certificate” so the child (in the governement’s eyes) was never born, therefore has no citizen rights to health care or school, etc. And most of the time, the birth parents conform to the one child policy so that none of the above has to happen. But there are consequences of some kind if the people do not conform. It’s a comunistic country. We should all be aware that these things DO happen. People don’t just decide these things without considering the other consequences. As I stated earlier, they are all victims of circumstance.
July 6th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
I also do not think anyone has stated there’s “no reason to be upset with this”. I at least, have never said that. I agree this is tragic. And perhaps the biggest difference in this instance, is that they were being paid to do it. Either way, it’s a sad situation. And I think in most cases, citizens comply because they do NOT want the consequences of not complying. I don’t think anything other than abandonment is common, but I also can’t ignore the fact that anything else is possible.
July 6th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Scandals like the above mentioned don’t help the ever growing struggle to stay positive that our adoption will actually happen or that it’s meant to happen
Part of me says to look at the writing on the wall, take your head out of the sand. slowdowns, delays, rule changes, fee increases, internal scandals, flu’s etc. In any other part of life you would never put yourself thru all this.
the other part say don’t let 1 or various negative incident paint all the picture, hang in there your 60% thru the waiting marathon
As a childless couple I am truly at a crossroads as to what to do, say or what to think anymore
i wonder if the above ” scandal” is a case of “if there’s smoke there’s fire” & these offical just got caught.
We are lead to believe China run a clean program & how they take pride in the matching of the babies & so on.
it’s sad enough to know that the babies are abandoned & to know some were take thru force really sits poorly with me & is hard to stomach
Anyhow I’m new to posting; forgive the spelling. Thank you to RQ for all you do. Your info & providing a forum to vent
Thank you
The Moomans
“nothing that matters comes easy, nothing that comes easy ever really matters”
July 6th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Just to clarify our previous comment.
What is terrible is that there were children taken from their families and given to IA. This is undeniable.
But this also gives IA a terrible image.
I just hope that the adoption agencies involved were not aware of this terrible fraud.
Again, we were told that the situation is even worse as far as domestic adoption is concerned.
We truly sympathise with the Chinese families who were forced to give their children.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:07 am
“hopeful parents Says:
July 4th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I really do not know how to react about this so-called scandal. Is it just another excuse to slow even more the international adoption process ?”
To Hopeful parents :
So called? The fact that FP may have fed IA is well known by China, by some adoptive parents and of course even by agencies since many years. This is not something brought out of a hat TODAY.
Happy to see you have published an additionnal comment (milder) since your first one which stated “an excuse to slow even more adoption process”.
I am sure you’d agree that if FP takes less children away from their families, it would be an excellent news for the kids even though there would be even less children available for IA.
Best regards
marianne, from France
July 8th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
To French Marianne:
French Marianne says:
“I am sure you’d agree that if FP takes less children away from their families, it would be an excellent news for the kids even though there would be even less children available for IA.”
We all agree about that. In an ideal world, we would not be needing adoption.
But please, let’s not make this scandal a scandal due to IA. International Adoption is definetely not the problem.
What happened happened because some people wrongfully took advantage of the system – whatever side of the fence they were standing – and not because parents from abroad wanted to give love and shelter to orphan children.
All we can hope is that it will never happen again and that it will not give a negative perception of IA.
Best regards.