China officially ends adoption scheme for foreign families

China has officially cancelled the international adoption programme that allowed tens of thousands of Chinese orphans and abandoned children to find a new home overseas.

Mao Ning, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, said on Thursday that in future Beijing would only allow foreign nationals who were relatives to adopt Chinese children.

“Apart from the adoption of a child or stepchild from one’s collateral relatives by blood of the same generation and up to the third degree of kinship by foreigners coming to China, China will not send children abroad for adoption. This is also in line with the spirit of relevant international covenants,” Mao said.

The first official international adoption approved in China was in 1985, and in 1992 a new law formalised the process by setting out a framework that allowed foreign families to come to China to adopt children.

Since that time tens of thousands of Chinese children have been adopted by foreign families, with the United States leading the list.