10,000 children abandoned each year in China

The tragedy at the orphanage has stirred up much discussion about adoption in China. Many even question her motives for the unlicenced adoptions. However, it is not easy to bring home a parentless child in China.

According to the Adoption Law, a legitimate candidate to adopt must be a healthy adult over 30 years of age, childless, and capable of fostering and educating the child. Yet among those that are willing to adopt, not many can meet the requirements.

Actually, private adoption has never been greatly encouraged as the government fears it may spur human trafficking.

And as for public care, limited resources have restricted the capacities of accommodating parentless children. One of the reasons that the Lan Kao mother, Yuan Lihai, had adopted over 100 children was because the local children's home could not take in more kids.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs says that by 2010, there were 655,000 parentless children. And every year, there are about 10 thousand newly abandoned children.

The government has been subsiding these children. Every month, each child in a support agency can get 1000 yuan. Those being taken care of by adopted parents are getting 600 yuan. But there are restrictions too. The agencies have to be officially registered, and the kids needs to provide their household registration, known as Hukou. Otherwise they are not covered by any social welfare. And those left outside the welfare system have to live on the donations of grassroots charitable organizations. Legally, these children are not protected.

Moreover, among the parentless children, the unhealthy ones are the most unfavoured. In 2010, there were nearly 30,000 children adopted both domestically and internationally, but unhealthy children had a slimmer than one in ten chance of being adopted. As we can see, the government is facing a tough task.