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Hundreds of American families who’ve waited over five years to embrace their adoptive children from China are clinging to hope that a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will finally bring their families together. Their optimism grew after the White House, for the first time, told the Post on Monday that the “America first” president is aware of their plight. This came weeks after US State Department officials suggested they look elsewhere after Beijing held firm on its decision to block all international adoptions. “President Trump is aware of this issue, and the Trump administration is committed to supporting American families and protecting children,” a senior Trump administration official said in an emailed statement. The statement added that the Chinese government’s decision to halt the adoption of children who had already been matched with “loving” American parents was unacceptable. “We continue to call on the Chinese government to allow the completion of these adoptions,” the official said. Since 1992, more than 160,000 children from China – including over 82,000 adopted by American families – have found homes abroad. But in 2024, Beijing abruptly ended the programme, leaving nearly 270 US families who had been waiting for years in limbo. Aimee Welch of Kentucky, who along with her husband, Stephen Welch, adopted their daughter Grace from China in 2017, welcomed this week’s response from the Trump administration. “That was the first time in five years that we’ve had a really clear statement from the White House about our children,” she told the Post, adding that it was “wonderful to hear from a high level official that this White House considers the current state of affairs unacceptable, and that they will continue to press forward”. The Welch family said they are still waiting after finalising the adoption of a girl with special care needs in March 2020. As tensions mount, families hope stalled adoptions find a place in Xi-Trump talks Most families say they spent years navigating the adoption process and were just weeks away from receiving travel permits to bring their adoptive children home when China suspended international travel at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Their hopes briefly rose in 2023 when the country reopened, but families say they heard nothing further until Beijing officially announced in September 2024 that it was ending all foreign adoptions. Since then, many of these desperate families have appealed through every possible channel, hoping to raise the issue at the highest levels on both sides. Letters sent in 2024 to President Joe Biden by more than 100 US lawmakers and 33 governors failed to push the issue on the US agenda when he met with Xi Jinping in Peru. Now, the families are hoping Trump will raise the issue when he meets Xi on Thursday in South Korea on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The talks are expected to centre on securing a trade truce with Beijing to ease the pain of US farmers caught in the crossfire. But the families argue that easing their own anguish could bring a much-needed dose of goodwill to the fragile bilateral relationship. A letter sent by more than 150 families to Trump this month stressed that in contrast with trade and technology, the issue “transcends politics” and a resolution would “strengthens the bonds between our two nations”. The written plea described this as an opportunity for Trump to unite “hundreds of children with their forever families” after his work on bringing back Israeli hostages and reuniting Ukrainian children with their families. Meghan Briggs from Pennsylvania, who along with her husband, David, was matched with a 5-year-old boy in 2020, is “fully convinced” that Trump has “the capacity to make this happen”. “This is an opportunity,” she said, referencing the Xi-Trump meeting. “I don’t care what someone’s political persuasion is.” The Briggs’ adoptive son is now 11 years old, and she added that “he’s now been waiting for us, particularly, for more than half his life”. “I think we can all agree that a child being sent to the family that they have a relationship with already and have been promised already, that that is absolutely the right thing to do,” she said. “And I know that President Trump can make that happen.” Even if experts are sceptical, families believe Xi and Trump could address adoption issue Welch, who now leads an organisation called Hope Leads Home, which advocates for completing the pending China adoptions, said she hoped that Trump would tell Xi that it’s a “win-win for the children and for our countries that shows goodwill and compassion”. Although families hold out hope, experts who study US-China relations caution that tense bilateral ties may prevent the issue from being addressed. “Frankly, I think this is a ‘fair weather’ ask by the US side,” according to Denis Simon, a long-time scholar on US-China cooperation. He said that “if things are going well and the atmosphere is very positive, such an ask becomes more likely to be approved. If things are rough and tumble, my guess is that this type of issue will remain at the bottom of the list.” In a September call with adoptive parents the US State Department was pessimistic on resolving the issue, adding that in its candid assessment the decision ultimately rested with the government of China. While the State Department officials asked families to consider pursuing other pathways to adoption, they said then that it was raised at the ambassador level and that it was not on the table with the White House “right now”. Welch said that this week’s statement from the White House moves the issue forward from the last State Department call and strengthens her belief that the issue can “only be resolved at the highest levels”. “I have a great deal of hope that if the right person were to ask at the right level … even after six years, even after so much heartache and so much family time lost, we could have a happy ending,” she said.
