Chinese Authorities Seize Adopted Children

China recently conducted a census assuring people they could list children adopted or born without official approval under that nation’s |one-child policy| without fearing government sanction. Many people apparently took that at face value, only to have the government remove adopted children from their homes based on the census data.

The BBC reports that the Chinese Southern Weekend newspaper recently said that adopted children had been removed from at least 18 families in raids in the southern province of Fujian. Chinese authorities claimed that since the adoptions had not been officially registered with the state, they were illegal.

Ominously the Southern Weekend reported that only male children had been removed from families and placed with other families since, as the BBC put it, “nobody would want a female child.” The paper went on to suggest that the babies were removed to avoid embarrassment by authorities at the number of unregistered children.

According to the BBC, one of the many problems with the one-child policy is that it has encouraged rings of kidnappers who procure babies to sell to families who cannot get permission to have children.

Source:

Chinese officials seize adopted children. Duncan Hewitt, The BBC, February 12, 2001.

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