Continued from here ...

With demographers agreeing that as many as 60 million girls are presently 'missing' from the Chinese population, shouldn't everyone be asking: Where have they gone?

... demographers in China found a ratio of 117 boys per 100 girls under the age of 5 in the 2000 census. Thanks to China’s one-child policy, put into effect in 1979 in order to curb population growth, and a strong cultural preference for male children, this gender gap could result in as many as 60 million “missing” girls from the population by the end of the decade, enough to alarm even Chinese officials.

And what happened to these girls? According to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (a term that takes on a whole new meaning when referring to China), there are about seven million abortions in China per year, 70 percent of which are estimated to be of females. That adds up to around five million per year, or 50 million by the end of the decade; so where are the other 10 million girls? If even 10 percent end up in orphanages... well, you do the math.

So, here we have a Hague-compliant country ... something many see as the Be All and End All of correct and righteous adoption form ... where 50 million female fetuses are aborted every year, and 10 million children disappear otherwise.

And that's not all:

The treaty states that “for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality,” each child should have the opportunity to grow up in a “family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding.” Indeed, it requires that each signatory take “as a matter of priority, appropriate measures to enable the child to remain in the care of his or her family of origin.” One could argue that China’s one-child policy directly violates the treaty by ensuring that many children will not remain in the care of the family but be relinquished to the care of the state.

One not only could argue, one SHOULD. Throwing in a hefty skepticism over the reliability of information coming out of China would be a good idea, as well.

Having adopted from Cambodia, I am far too well aware of the effects of backlash, and certainly have no desire to see adoptions from anywhere removed from the list of possible options for children, but I have long sensed a danger in the carte blanche awarded the Chinese system. Too many people tend to assume that their Hague status extends some cover of respectability that precludes critical analysis, forgetting or ignoring the fact that there are no provisions in the Convention on Intercountry Adoption that requires member nations to report how many children are in institutions or what the criteria is for deciding which children are adoptable and which aren't, not to mention taking into account the millions 'missing' from the logical demographics.

For those leaping to the fore defending China's sovereign right to construct new barriers or continually holding up the China program as an example of all that can be right in international adoption, I say, tread carefully.

Real, live children are the issue here, not theoretical, pie-in-the-sky, wouldn't-it-be-lovely-ifs, and simply because the country you happen to live in promotes something like fairness, justice and a nod of the head toward human rights, it's naive to believe this is the rule.