The number of mainland Chinese children adopted by Spaniards has seen a dramatic fall this year since Beijing toughened rules relating to foreign adoptions.
After the US, Spain adopts the highest number of Chinese children in the world. But according to the Spanish government, the number of successful applications has dropped sharply so far this year to 994 - a fall of 36 per cent compared with the same period last year.
The number of would-be parents, hoping to take back a mainland child to start a new life in Spain, fell from 2,753 in 2005 to 1,759 last year.
Social services secretary Amparo Valcare linked the fall directly to Beijing's decision to toughen rules on foreign adoption. 'We see it as logical that, as countries face an ever higher demand to adopt their children, they have tightened the rules,' she said.
The toughened rules aim to prevent adoptions by unmarried, elderly or unhealthy people.
The policy change was partly prompted by rising demand from couples in Spain, the United States and other European countries.