UpFront News Briefs
June 25, 2004
CHINESE ADOPTIONS
Returning to Chinese Roots
A growing number of American children adopted from China are returning to explore their homeland and discover their heritage. The thousands who were adopted by American parents shortly after China opened adoptions in 1992 are turning an age that brings questions about who they are and where they come from.
Several travel companies are arranging tours to the cities from which these children came, along with visits to the orphanages where many of them spent a year or more before coming to America.
Becca Piper, who has arranged such tours for children from South Korea, Russia, India and several South American countries, said she has received at least 6,000 inquiries from parents of Chinese-born children over the last five years, organizing her first trip in 2002.
Chinese adoptions have increased steadily since 1992, when 206 children were adopted by American parents, according to Families with Children from China. In 2003, there were 6,859 such adoptions, bringing the total to 40,336 adoptions in 11 years.
For years, Gillian Hamilton had planned to return to China with her 11-year-old daughter Jing, who was 18 months old when she was adopted. Once Hamilton’s son — Michael, 4, from Guatemala — was old enough for the long journey, Hamilton booked the trip with Adoptive Family Travel.
“Ever since Jing could talk, she has wanted to go back and find her mother,” Hamilton said. “She said she would never be happy until she found her.”
Some adoption coordinators urge parents-to-be to give serious thought to a return trip once their children are old enough to appreciate their culture and heritage.
Cory Barron, spokesperson for Children’s Hope International, a St. Louis-based agency that assists in hundreds of adoptions from China each year, said the agency suggested a return to China when children are between 10 and 12.
He said most adopted children are 6 when they start asking difficult questions, including “Why was I adopted?” and “Why don’t many people look like me?”
U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS
Chao to Discuss Employee Protections
Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans are in China for four days of talks aimed at boosting U.S. exports, narrowing America’s record trade deficit with China and strengthening worker safety.
Chao’s appearance makes her the first labor secretary to officially visit China since 1988.
The labor secretary, in particular, is leading a delegation with expertise in employment standards and safety.
“In the past 25 years, considerable progress has been made in the standard of living and working conditions of the Chinese people,” Chao said. “As China undergoes its explosive economic growth, we are committed to working with China to help improve the working conditions of its workers to keep pace with its overall economic development.”
Chao’s focus on Chinese labor issues is a follow-up to $6.4 million in Labor Department grants, of which $2.3 million in 2002 was dedicated to improving mine safety and health in China.
In announcing the trip, Evans said China remains at the top of the administration’s list of priority countries for addressing alleged unfair trade practices. Evans said the meetings with senior government officials were also aimed at exploring ways U.S. companies can increase exports to the huge Chinese market.
Evans and Chao will be joined during their talks in Beijing by eight members of the president’s Export Council, including J.W. Marriott Jr., chairman of Marriott International Inc.; James C. Morgan, president of Applied Materials Inc.; and Jack Faris, president of the National Federation of Independent Business.
In addition to discussions in Beijing, Evans will visit Harbin, China, to meet with Chinese government officials and address students at the Harbin Institute of Technology.
LAWRENCE berkeley LAB
First APA to Head National Lab
University of California regents appointed Nobel laureate Steven Chu to head the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, effective Aug. 1.
Chu, a professor in the physics and applied physics departments at Stanford University and co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics, is the first Asian Pacific American to head a national lab, according to federal officials.
Chu, 55, earned his doctorate from UC Berkeley and has been on the faculty at Stanford since 1987.
Lawrence Berkeley, a non-weapons lab founded in the 1930s, is one of three federal scientific and weapons laboratories operated by the UC system. The others are nuclear weapons labs in Los Alamos, N.M., and Livermore, Calif.
Chu’s appointment comes at a sensitive time. Although the UC system has run all three since they were founded, business and security lapses have raised controversy in recent years and Congress declared that the management contracts be put up for bid.
NORTH CAROLINA LIFE
APA Tar Heels Second Fastest-Growing
Asian Pacific Americans in North Carolina have one of the highest growth rates and rank highest in median household income and college completion rates, according to a new study in this state.
The report, by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research Inc., says that while APAs make up only 1.4 percent of the population, they were the second fastest-growing group, up 128 percent. Hispanics led in growth with a 394 percent increase. Hispanics make up 4.7 percent of the state. The state’s overall growth rate is 21 percent.
In education, the study found that on North Carolina’s end-of-grade tests, 87 percent of APAs scored at or above grade level in both reading and math for grades three through eight, slightly trailing white students.
Asians also came in second behind whites in per capita income with average earnings of $19,815. Hispanics were last at $11,097, or 48 percent of the white average.
In Internet access, the same pattern holds with around 60 percent of whites and APAs using the Internet, but only half that rate, or 32 percent, of Hispanics.
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