This chapter appears in Child Maltreatment in Residential Care: History, Research, and Current Practice, a volume of research examining the institutionalization of children, child abuse and neglect in residential care, and interventions preventing and responding to violence against children living in out-of-home care settings around the world.
Abstract
The Chinese state responsibility for orphans whose families cannot be found took the form of institutional care historically. The number of children in care rose during the implementation of strict policy criteria for family planning, adoption, and dismantling of the communist welfare state in the 1980–1990s. During that time, institutions were severely under-resourced, maltreatment levels were extreme, and children were dying from neglect. Young people who grew up in care also reported physical and emotional abuse from practices such as physical punishment from staff despite rules against it, naming practices, forced sterilization, and loss of relationships from forced shifts between forms of care. In more recent years, the Chinese government has implemented different types of policies that have had the effect of reducing the incidence of maltreatment in institutions. Support for children to live in their families and communities, such as improvements in the health and welfare systems, has had the effect of reducing the reasons they become state wards. If they do become state wards, the policies and practices preference adoption, and now in some areas, they also prioritize family-based alternative care. Regulations to ensure quality of care from nongovernment carers are more likely to be implemented now, following scandals about the death of children in their care. Outstanding problems include how to implement the policies, particularly replacing institutional care, monitoring the behavior of staff, and ensuring nongovernment carers comply with regulations.