China ends international adoption. Reactions range from shock to relief

For more than three decades, thousands of children — many of them thought to have been abandoned in China — were adopted to other countries. Over half found homes in the U.S.

In September, China ended its international adoption program, sending shockwaves through the adoption community and angering families still in the process of adopting children from China.

For “adoptees themselves, many of whom are now young adults, the news was met with ambivalence, if not outright happiness that China was stopping international adoptions.”

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 over 30 years, thousands of children in China have been adopted by people in other countries, with more than half finding homes in the U.S. In September, China announced it was ending its international adoption program, shocking the adoption community and angering families who were still in the process of adopting from the country. But among adoptees, many of whom are now young adults, the news evoked mixed feelings. “I can be grateful, and I can have a great, great relationship with my parents. But I can also still be critical of the systems that caused my adoption,” says Hannah Johns. Here’s what Chinese adoptees told NPR about their experiences growing up and their thoughts on this change.