Priority treatment?

The civil affairs yearbook revealed that 15 percent of adoption from orphanages in 2012 were international. The situation has changed significantly compared with the year 2005 when more than 14,000 international adoption cases were recorded, while the domestic cases stood at only 10,000. The presence of international adoption has been blamed for making it even more difficult for domestic families to adopt a healthy child from orphanages.

Orphanages in some provinces have even been accused of giving special priority to foreign families over their Chinese counterparts. The Century Weekly magazine reported in 2011 that vested interests were involved in the international adoption industry. The report said family planning officers in Shaoyang, Hunan Province, were actually selling children in the local orphanage to foreign adoptive families at $3,000 each.

Zhang Wen, who assisted three foreign couples to adopt Chinese children in 1992, when China's adoption law had just come into force, said adoptive families are supposed to pay a "donation" to the orphanages they are adopting from and according to her knowledge, the sum is now set at $5,000 for foreign adopters at most orphanages today. "Although there's no set figure for Chinese adopters, sometimes Chinese families pay even more."

Professor Johnson personally paid $3,000 when she adopted her daughter from Wuhan.

Even without the donation concern, Zhang Wen said many Chinese orphanages do prefer foreign adopters because "foreign adopters are seen friendlier and kinder while Chinese adoptive families are more particular."

In recent years, the percentage of international adoptions has been declining. One of the reasons behind this is that even foreign families now have to wait seven or eight years for a healthy baby.

But Professor Johnson suggested that Chinese orphanages should completely shut the door to foreigners waiting to adopt healthy Chinese children. "When there are not enough healthy children for childless parents in China, why are the orphanages giving away healthy children to foreigners? How could it be necessary?"