Re: Chinese babies sold for adoption to US and Europe, report claims

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/03/content_11648503.htm

Orphanage investigated, officials punished over baby adoption scandal
in SW China
www.chinaview.cn  2009-07-03 21:15:53

   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.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5732679/Chinese-babies-sold
-for-adoption-to-US-and-Europe-report-claims.html

Chinese babies sold for adoption to US and Europe, report claims
Authorities in China are investigating reports that dozens of babies
who were taken from their parents for breaching the country's strict
one-child policy were sold for adoption to families in Europe and
America.
By Peter Foster in Beijing
Published: 2:36PM BST 03 Jul 2009

An investigation has alleged that up to 78 babies taken into care in
Guizhou province, in southern China, were sold for £1,800 each, mostly
to childless couples in the US but also to families from European
countries, including Sweden and Spain.
Many of the girls were genuine orphans or had been abandoned by their
parents as unwanted, however, in at least three cases it is alleged
the children were removed in lieu of £2,000 fines levied for breach of
China's draconian one-child policy.
The cases relate to a three-year period between 2004-2006, when the
policy was being strictly enforced by the local government of Zhenyuan
county in Guizhou.
The local government issued a statement saying that two senior local
officials had been warned and had received "executive demerits"
following a local disciplinary inquiry. The statement said the
government would continue to investigate the allegations. "There will
be no cover up," the statement added.
China is a popular destination for overseas couples, particularly from
the US, who want to adopt children and is generally perceived to have
a well-regulated and transparent system, imposing strict requirements
on applicants.
Yang Jibin, the reporter who researched the story for the Southern
Weekly newspaper in Guangzhou, said he was shown a list of 80 female
babies while on a visit to the Zhenyuan state orphanage, of which 78
had been adopted abroad.
He told the story of one couple, Lu and Yang, who gave up their fourth
baby girl in 2003 after a visit from a birth control officer who
insisted on taking the baby away, describing the girl as "abandoned
baby, found and turned in by Lu" in the orphanage register.
"That was my job. I just followed the policy," the officer was
reported as saying, "They were willing to give up their baby to offset
the fine" After relinquishing their child without signing any formal
contracts, Lu and Yang never returned to the orphanage to visit. They
added that, even if the child was now found, they would not take her
back for fear of having to pay the outstanding fine.
Tang Jian, leader of Birth Control Administrative Bureau Inspection
Team of Zhenyuan county apparently admitted the practice was prevalent
at the time.
"It is true that some baby girls were forced be brought into the
charity house and then sent abroad," he was quoted as saying.
Other parents were less compliant when asked to give up their
children. A former worker at the orphanage quoted in the report
recalled one local father who tried several times to take back his
daughter in 2004, even offering bribes to staff to let her go.
When this failed, he came to visit his daughter more and more often
until, one day, he grabbed her, stood up and ran. "Four or five
nannies surrounded him immediately and took back the baby," the worker
recalled.