China's hidden children

In the thirty-five years since China instituted its One-Child Policy, 120,000 childrenmostly girlshave left China through international adoption, including 85,000 to the United States. Its generally assumed that this diaspora is the result of Chinas approach to population control, but there is also the underlying belief that the majority of adoptees are daughters because the One-Child Policy often collides with the traditional preference for a son. While there is some truth to this, it does not tell the full storya story with deep personal resonance to Kay Ann Johnson, a China scholar and mother to an adopted Chinese daughter.

Abandoned children · Child trafficking · Civil rights · Family size · Girls · Government policy · Intercountry adoption · Population policy · Social aspects · china · Population