An official leading an investigation into the controversy surrounding accusations that local family planning officals “removed children” in Hunan Province and later sold them to adoption agencies abroad, dismissed accusations that any children had been sold abroad. The scandal erupted after the well-respected and independent-minded Century Weekly published an expose on children being forcibly removed from their parents on the grounds that the parents had broken China’s family planning regulations. The children were said to have been sent to a local orphanage with many of them having their surname changed to “Shao”. The article was called “Orphans surnamed Shao” or 邵氏弃儿 Shào Shì qì'ér in Chinese – which has since become a popular short-hand expression to refer to the scandal. The children were also said to have been adopted by families abroad. Two parents who claimed they had lost one of their children to officials and who tried to raise public awareness about the removal in an attempt to bring their child home, had earlier been detained on charges related to prostitution (more background here).

Source

People’s Daily Online

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