Chinese children remain popular for adoptions in US

With over 2,000 adoptions last year, China remained the most popular country for American parents to adopt a child even though the numbers continued to decline due to rigorous standards to qualify for the process.
Adoptions from China to the US totalled 2,040, down more than 10 per cent from 2013 and far below the 2005 peak of 7,903, state-run China Daily reported.
Quoting US State Department figures, the report showed that adoptions of foreign children from all countries to US families dropped by nine per cent in the fiscal year 2014 and reached its lowest level of 6,441, the lowest since 1982.

That's down from 7,092 the previous year and from a high of about 23,000 in 2004, the report said.
China has expanded its domestic adoption programme and sought to curtail the rate of child abandonment. It has also modified its one-child policy.
At the same time, it has adopted more rigorous standards to qualify for the adoption of all children, including those with special needs.
Most children who are abandoned fall into the special-needs group.