The Beating of a Butterfly's Wings

Some common misunderstood facts about the Zhenyuan story:

1. It is amazing that the Chinese government allowed this story to be published. Does that not show that they want this kind of corruption revealed?
A: The Chinese government did not allow this story to be published. In mid-June the South City News was told by the government to not publish ANY articles dealing with orphanages, family planning offices, or baby-buying. After two weeks of internal discussion, the newspaper, against the prohibitions of the government, published the story anyway (their account of the decision to rebuke the government by publishing the story can be read here). There is in fact NO evidence that the government is allowing stories about orphanages to be published. In Hunan, the government stopped all reporting shortly after the story broke.

2. How is this story being treated inside China?
A: The original article has been redacted and republished broadly across China, both in print and on TV (as of this writing a Baidu search returns over 250 "hits" on the story). The focus is largely on the abuse by Family Planning officials, although some mention that the story resulted from inquiries by an American adoptive mother. Comments by Chinese residents to these articles range from anger that this story was published, making China lose face, to outrage at the government that allows these perverse policies to continue.

3. Weren't Family Planning officials just doing their jobs?
A: That is certainly how they look at it. The one-child policy is just that, a policy, a goal. There are no stated penalties given for having more than one's quota of children. Thus, Family Planning officials are free to do whatever they want to families -- a dinner at a fancy restaurant, a pig, a hefty fine, the destruction of one's home, the taking of one's child. If any good comes from this story, it will be the formalization of penalties for over-quota children.

4. Did the orphanage director know this was happening, or was he innocent in this story?
The China Daily account indicates that the orphanage "authorities forged documents stating the babies were orphans and adoption fees were split between the orphanage and officials."

5. How common are these stories?
A: In our research of different orphanages across China, we see many blogs of angry citizens like the one that wrote about Zhenyuan. They are found in every Province, in many, many orphanage cities.

UPDATE: The blame-game is starting in Guizhou. The China Daily reports that Provincial Civil Affairs official of Zhenyuan County Luo Qiong Zhen stated: "100% of the kids sent out for adoption are abandoned babies or orphans. If the kids' birth parents report that this is not true, they can complete the forms to retrieve their children."

This statement is contradicted by Tang Jian, officer in the Zhenyuan County Family Planning Control Bureau, who stated: "Were kids taken by force and sent to the orphanage to be adopted internationally? This is totally true."

One of the birth mothers (Yang Shui Ying) reported in the China Daily (that article contains additional information) recounted that as Shi Guang Ying, the Family Planning official, was leaving with her daughter, he turned to her and said, "Don't worry. When your girl is a little bit older the orphanage will send her outside China for adoption." This was meant to placate the birth mother. It didn't.

It appears that the method used by Family Planning was to target the most vulnerable in Zhenyuan -- families whose husbands were away from home working, or who had little money with which to pay the fines. Additionally, they seem to have targeted families with female children rather than male. One of the fathers, Li Ze Ji, whose child was taken by Family Planning while he was in working in Zhejiang Province, angrily responded, "If I had been home when they took my daughter away, I would have killed them!"

July 3, 2009 UPDATE: The South City News has published the story of the Chinese Government's attempted suppression of this story. On June 13, 2009 the paper was ready to run with the story and was told by the Government they were prohibited from publishing any story that deals with orphanages, family planning offices, or baby-buying. After two weeks of deliberation, they modified the story slightly and published it despite this prohibition.

July 4, 2009 UPDATE: Netwerk TV in the Netherlands last night broadcast a segment detailing China's reaction to the investigation last year of the Gaoping Family Planning confiscations. After the Dutch delegation returned from China (where they met with the CCAA) Dutch Justice Minister Levenkamp received a letter from CCAA Director Lu Ying telling them "it is best not to pursue, expand or elaborate on this issue further and to keep [this] secret for related families in order not to interrupt the bond established between the adoptive parents and the children and impose any unnecessary pressure on them." The actual letter will here available soon.

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A corruption story is building in Guizhou Province, and it started with one adoptive mother asking all the right questions.

Wendy was one of the first adoptive parents to purchase our new birth family reports. Her daughter is from the Zhenyuan SWI in Guizhou Province, a small orphanage by IA standards. Wendy ordered one of our Birth Parent Analysis for her daughter. In this report we alerted Wendy to aggressive family planning tactics being used in Zhenyuan, and pointed her to a Chinese blog that recounted the confiscations of three children found to have been internationally adopted.

Wendy contacted this blogger and began to share information with this individual. This resulted in additional interest from Chinese media, and yesterday a long and in-depth account of the Family Planning abductions was published in Guangzhou. Abbreviated versions have since been picked up by other Chinese and English outlets, including the China.Org, Shanghai Daily, and the South China Morning Post. None of these secondary articles displays the anger and resentment manifested in the original article, and I am hopeful that an English version of the original piece will be published.

The Zhenyuan orphanage has adopted a little over 40 children since 2003, almost all of them apparently brought to the orphanage through Family Planning confiscations. What is peculiar about Zhenyuan is that the orphanage made no attempt to disguise the origin of these children -- the adoption paperwork lists the finding location as the birth parent's home. Thus many of Zhenyuan's adoptive parents have been given a direct line to their child's birth family.

This story is exploding inside China, for one simple reason -- these actions are viewed as a tremendous abuse of power. Families are of course aware that they must register their children, but the law says NOTHING about the government seizing the children of those who violate Family Planning policy. To then learn that their children were "sold" (the Chinese understanding) to foreigners for adoption, and that they would never see them again, has resulted in a fire-storm of controversy.

The circumstances in Zhenyuan are hardly unique. As we analyze the finding ads from all over China we see patterns that indicate this type of practice is taking place in many, many areas. Bloggers in small towns lament the brutal actions of their Family Planning officials. They beg for someone to listen, to do something to make a change. These local citizens have largely been ignored and unseen by anyone.

Until now.

Inside China:
China-wide: http://news.sina.com.cn/s/2009-07-02/080218137623.shtml
http://www.mitbbs.cn/article_t/USANews/31230645.html
http://club.chinaren.com/0/149592969

http://bbs.asuro.cn/read-htm-tid-292443.html
Guangdong: http://gcontent.nddaily.com/d/fb/dfb84a11f431c624/Blog/c79/662656.html#comment_tabs (Original Article)

http://www.mitbbs.cn/article_t/USANews/31230645.html

http://bbs.0668.com/viewthread.php?tid=305065

Sichuan: http://press.idoican.com.cn/detail/articles/20090702141059/

Chongqing: http://www.cqautofan.com/thread-168938-1-1.html

Hong Kong: http://news.ifeng.com/society/5/200907/0701_2579_1228343_1.shtml

In English: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-07/03/content_8350349.htm

Outside China:
Spain: http://www.adn.es/sociedad/20090702/NWS-0114-Denuncian-extranjeros-adopcion-familias-darlas.html

England: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8130900.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5732679/Chinese-babies-sold-for-adoption-to-US-and-Europe-report-claims.html

United States: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124656106407087613.html

Netherlands: http://www.nrcnext.nl/blog/2009/07/03/2200-voor-een-chinese-wees-die-nog-ouders-heeft/
http://www.netwerk.tv/uitzending/2009-07-03/weer-adoptieschandaal-china
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/4314006/_%20_Gedwongen_%20adoptie_naar_%20Nederland_%20_.html?p=%2036,2
http://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/nederland/article2805888.ece/_Illegale_Chinese_adoptiekinderen_in_Nederland_.html#mailfriend
http://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/nederland/article2806655.ece/De_meeste_adoptiekinderen__zijn__vondeling___maar_niet_allemaal_.html#mailfriend
http://www.ad.nl/buitenland/3341970/Adoptievereniging_trekt_kinderhandel_na.html