ABSTRACT

Beginning with a history of the social role of adoption in China, this chapter provides profile data on trends in the contemporary use of adoption, noting jurisdiction-specific characteristics: the fact that this has long been a primary 'sending' nation for intercountry adoption (ICA) purposes. It shows the effect of the one-child policy; the nature and consequences of a poor regulatory regime; and the currently rapid growth in domestic adoptions. The chapter considers the relevance of certain key adoption principles, before outlining the current adoption law and human rights legal framework together with a description of the remit and effect of related regulatory bodies. It discusses the interaction between human rights and adoption law at each stage of the adoption process. China has a very strong association with transracial adoption: for many decades ICA by Caucasians in the US and Europe consisted very largely of Chinese and Korean children who have undoubtedly made the largest contribution to total international transracial adoptions.