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Child adoptions from mainland far from secret

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SCMP Reporter

Agence France-Presse did a poor job in researching the article 'Doors to adoption open quietly and expensively' (South China Morning Post, February 10). To insist that foreign adoption from China is a secretive process is ludicrous.

There is nothing quiet about foreigners adopting from the mainland. The China Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) actually has its own Web site, with information in Chinese and English (www.china-ccaa.org). And parents adopting from there are not 'asked to keep quiet about the adoption process'.

There are thousands of parents who acknowledge the adoption of their Chinese children.

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North American publications commonly feature stories of families who have adopted from there. Even last month's Superbowl aired the story of a Miami Dolphins quarterback who had adopted from China. Although the headline implies otherwise, the doors to foreign adoption have been open since the early 1990s.

The CCAA was established in 1996 not 'to protect national pride from foreign adoption agencies', but to centralise the handling of adoptions. Before 1996, adoptions were governed by a number of Chinese ministries - never by foreign adoption agencies.

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The article states that adoptive parents take 'a trip to the countryside to find a child to adopt', implying that foreigners scour the countryside for abandoned children.

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