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This programme contains some
strong language and scenes which
some viewers may find disturbing

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

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I was born in China in 1985.

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A time when China's population
crisis was making headlines

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around the world.

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There are more than
a billion Chinese.

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That one, big statistic,
more than anything else,

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is at the heart of that country's
huge economic problems.

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By the middle of the next century,
if China's families have

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an average of three children,
there will be starvation.

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However, with one child per family,
the standard of living doubles.

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So now there's a desperate effort
under way to control the population.

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To limit families to just one child.

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Chinese officials are using fines,
economic incentives and propaganda.

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Billboards like this one are up
all over the country.

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They have a long way to go.

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Six years before I was born,
China launched its one-child policy.

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I grew up seeing reminders of
the policy everywhere.

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They were painted on the walls,
printed on playing cards...

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..calendars,

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matches,

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snack boxes,

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posters,

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all of them blended into
the background of life in China.

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I never thought much about what
it meant for me, or anyone,

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until I learned that
I was going to be a mum.

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HEARTBEAT

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Our baby was born
seven weeks early.

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I was not prepared.

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Right after he was born,
the nurses took him away from me.

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The separation and fear
for his health was traumatic.

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12 days later, I was finally able
to take him home and hold him.

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Becoming a mother felt like giving
birth to my memories.

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A rush of images from
my early life came back to me.

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I thought of my own parents
and the name they gave me.

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They chose the name
Nanfu before I was born.

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Nan means man,
and Fu means pillar.

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They hoped for a boy who would grow
up to be the pillar of the family.

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When I was born a girl,
they named me Nanfu anyway,

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hoping that I would grow up strong,
like a man.

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I remember the plaques
the government hung on all

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the front doors in my village
every year,

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signifying each family's commitment
to the Communist Party's values.

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Each plaque was decorated
with stars,

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indicating how well
a family performed.

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Including a star for whether the
family had no more than one child.

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Our family always missed that star.

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I remembered being sent
to middle school in the city,

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because our village only had
an elementary school.

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Most of the city kids
came from one child families.

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Whenever someone found out that
I had a brother, I felt embarrassed,

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as if our family had done something
wrong by having a second child.

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FIRECRACKERS EXPLODING

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Bringing him back to my village
for the first time

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showed me how traumatic it was
just to become a parent in China.

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Visiting the village kindergarten
where my mum teaches,

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I remembered that we had textbooks
about the one-child policy

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since we were kids.

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I used to think that I knew
everything there was to know

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about the one-child policy.

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But now, I wondered if the thoughts
I had were really my own,

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or if they were simply learned?

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I asked my neighbour to take me to
see the former head of my village,

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who was in charge when
the one-child policy began.

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He was one of the people
my grandpa argued with

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about sterilising my mum.

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NANFU LAUGHS

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CYMBALS CLASH

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SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

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SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

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Men like Liu Xianwen worked
all over China to promote

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the one-child policy.

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Since before I could even speak,

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I was surrounded by messages
praising the policy.

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There was TV...

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..theatrical performances...

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..and even children's songs.

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And just like everyone else,
I joined in the choir.

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This was me performing
propaganda songs.

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We all had the same make-up, the
same dresses and the same mentality.

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As I was leaving, I asked
my neighbour, who went with me,

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if he could take me to meet
some women

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who were affected by the policy.

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MUSIC PLAYS

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That night, I decided it was best
to speak to someone I know.

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So I went to see the local midwife,
who delivered all the babies

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in the village, including myself.

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She was happy to see me.

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She showed me photos of my grandma,

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who used to be in the same
propaganda band with her.

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On the wall, there was a long list
of infertility disorders.

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Next to it were flags people sent to
thank her

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for helping them have babies.

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NANFU GASPS

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My village is one of many thousands
across the country...

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..and every village had midwives
and family planning workers.

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Each year, the government would
punish or reward them

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depending on how many babies were
born in their territory.

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INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

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She was standing right behind
Wen Jiabao,

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the country's premier at the time.

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Received like a national hero,

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Jiang's story was told again
and again by the state TV.

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"We are fighting a population war"
was a common slogan

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used by the government during
the one-child policy.

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China started a war against
population growth,

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but it became a real war against
its own people.

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My grandpa is 83.

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He lived through wars, famines
and revolutions.

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My own parents weren't much
better off.

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My father died of a brain
haemorrhage when he was 33...

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..and his short life was more about
survival than finding fulfilment.

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None of my family questioned
the policy

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or how it was implemented.

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The government used music and TV
to show people

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a better life that they could
imagine themselves living,

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as long as they followed the rules.

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I wish I could say something to
my mum.

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Like most people in China,
she believes the policy

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was necessary for China's survival.

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But I wondered if people like her
really thought

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it was worth the sacrifices each
family made.

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Coming back here, I realised that
I don't even have

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a photo of my grandpa and me
as he only ever took photos

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with his two grandsons.

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GATE SQUEAKS

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When my mum was born,
her parents named her Zaodi,

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which means "bring me
a younger brother soon".

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CHATTER

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She later helped her younger brother
abandon his daughter in the market

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so he could try again for a son.

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I wish I could say that my uncle
was the only one in our family

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who felt he had to abandon a child.

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The large number of
abandoned babies created

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opportunities for human traffickers
all over China.

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In my village, we called them
matchmakers,

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because they took unwanted babies
and found homes for them.

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Talking with my aunt
about matchmakers triggered a memory

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I had of a national news story
from a decade ago,

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where an entire family was convicted
of selling babies to orphanages.

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At the time, it seemed cruel
and evil that someone could

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sell babies like that, but now I
wondered if the government's version

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of their crime was true at all.

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I tracked down the ex-trafficker
Duan Yueneng in Shenzhen.

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Duan spent four years in prison
but now works as a security guard.

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The day I was there,
he was on his break,

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scavenging furniture from a company
that was going out of business.

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The number 10,000 sounded high to
me, but I had no way to verify it.

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I asked him to show me
exactly how he did it.

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ANNOUNCEMENT OVER TANNOY

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He used to take a train almost every
day between Guangdong province,

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where he would find babies,
and Hunan province,

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where he would sell the babies
to the orphanages.

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1992 was the year that China began

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its international adoption
programme,

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allowing foreigners
to adopt Chinese orphans.

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But demand from orphanages
grew so fast

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that Duan's family had to find help.

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YUENENG DUAN:

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MEILIN DUAN:

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YUENENG DUAN:

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Until my aunt told me this story
about her abandoned daughter,

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I never knew that I had a cousin.

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Now I was filled with questions.
Where could she be?

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And where are the children
Duan sold to orphanages?

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One family in America has been
trying to answer these questions

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for 18 years.

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There are entries showing that
these kids either came from

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the Duan family, from
Wuchuan or from, you know,

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outside family planning,
and that's just...

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It's astounding that of the hundreds
of kids that this orphanage

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adopted internationally,
less than a handful of them

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actually seem to have been
legitimately found.

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The rest were brought in
by people. I know...

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Long Lan and her husband Brian
co-founded Research China,

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a paid service that tries
to connect adopted children

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with their birth families in China.

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Their search started
with their own children.

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Why adopting from China
was so popular

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among international families?

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The main thing is that the China
programme from the beginning

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was extremely predictable.

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You knew, practically down to
the penny, how much money you were

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going to need to bring to China,
you knew where you were going to be

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on every day, you knew what forms
you were going to sign.

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Everything was 100% orchestrated.

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How much was the average total cost
to adopt from China?

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Generally between, say,
$10,000 at the very least

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to $20,000, $25,000.

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So we did research,
submitted our dossier

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and adopted Meikina in 1998,
April 4th.

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And it was, in every sense of the
word, a life-changing experience.

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And we said, "Boy, we need
to go on that ride again!"

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Now, look at the camera! One...
Come on!

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One, two, three...

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For most of Meikina's life,

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they thought they knew
exactly how she came to them.

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I'd actually started researching
in China in about 2000

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and interviewed this finder.

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And the detail and the experience
that she painted for me

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struck me as completely legitimate.

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For ten years, I was convinced
that that story was accurate.

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And then, finally, Long said,
"You know, maybe we should go back

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"and I should meet this finder
and talk to her myself."

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So she went back, found
the woman I had interviewed,

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and the woman kind of got
a little bit nervous and she said,

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"Have you spoken to the orphanage?

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"I actually had nothing to do
with your daughter's finding.

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"Our names were just put
on the paperwork for the adoption.

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"We didn't find your daughter."

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And when Long called me
and told me that, I was like,

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"Wow, that is amazing,"

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because now I recognised
that the orphanage had prepped

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the finder before I'd even
got there in 2000 and said,

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you, know, "Give them a good story,

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"make something up,
just make them feel good."

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And that's what happens
in the majority of cases

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when Western families go to China,

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and they give the same story
over and over and over again.

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I can't find them...

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Talking with Long Lan, I realised

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I was following the path
she had already discovered.

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She had reached out to Duan and
his family many years before I did.

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She has a copy of all the records
from Duan's trial.

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She also interviewed Duan's mum,
who passed away several years ago.

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She was the first person
in the family

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who sold babies to orphanages.

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And so the orphanage will hire...

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Not officially hire, but will create
a recruiting network of doctors,

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midwives, foster families, whatever,

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you know, anybody that can locate

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and bring children
into the orphanage.

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When those children
come into the orphanage,

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then of course the orphanage
then needs to fabricate their

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information, say, "Oh, yeah, let's
pick the third middle school today."

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You know? And they'll tell
the adoptive family,

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"Your child was found
at the third middle school,"

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when, in fact, they were never
actually found at all.

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So what the orphanages will do
is they'll make an agreement

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with their local police station
and say, "OK, we're going to bring

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"over these finding reports, and
we need you to stamp it and sign it,

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00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:48,560
"and we'll pay you 50 yuan or
whatever for each one that we do."

243
00:57:51,200 --> 00:57:54,560
The finding ads are published in
newspapers that nobody ever reads,

244
00:57:54,560 --> 00:57:58,800
you know? Basically, they're just
a photo with some information about

245
00:57:58,800 --> 00:58:01,520
the child - their gender,
their health status,

246
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:05,720
where they were supposedly found,
how old, their birth date and so on.

247
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:08,160
And then, at the bottom
of the finding ad, it says,

248
00:58:08,160 --> 00:58:11,880
"The birth family has 60 days
to retrieve the child

249
00:58:11,880 --> 00:58:14,080
"or the child will be
submitted for adoption."

250
00:58:19,600 --> 00:58:22,560
Looking at the finding ads
in the newspapers,

251
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:25,160
I wondered about each baby's story.

252
00:58:25,160 --> 00:58:27,200
If they weren't orphans,

253
00:58:27,200 --> 00:58:30,560
were they given to matchmakers
like my own cousin?

254
00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:36,160
I found many sets of twins.

255
00:58:36,160 --> 00:58:38,440
Most of them probably
were separated...

256
00:58:40,200 --> 00:58:43,720
..and they don't even know that they
have a twin somewhere in the world.

257
00:59:00,120 --> 00:59:03,240
When you take that information
from all the children

258
00:59:03,240 --> 00:59:06,880
and you collate it together,
you can begin to see patterns.

259
00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:09,560
This is the location
that the orphanage told

260
00:59:09,560 --> 00:59:12,160
the adoptive families
where their child was found.

261
00:59:12,160 --> 00:59:15,600
And so you can see orphanage gate,
civil affairs,

262
00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:18,320
orphanage, civil affairs,
orphanage...

263
00:59:18,320 --> 00:59:21,240
It's clear that, you know, they're
making up the information, because

264
00:59:21,240 --> 00:59:24,160
they're using the same locations
over and over and over again.

265
00:59:49,520 --> 00:59:51,880
It used to be that family planning
would come in

266
00:59:51,880 --> 00:59:55,280
if you had an over-quota child
and they'd bash down your house

267
00:59:55,280 --> 00:59:59,320
or they'd take a pig
or, you know, do something.

268
00:59:59,320 --> 01:00:02,120
Once the orphanage joined the
international adoption programme,

269
01:00:02,120 --> 01:00:03,520
that changed.

270
01:00:03,520 --> 01:00:06,760
And so now they saw kind of
a win-win situation going,

271
01:00:06,760 --> 01:00:09,880
where the family planning would
go in and take the child

272
01:00:09,880 --> 01:00:13,640
that wasn't registered,
turn it in to the orphanage,

273
01:00:13,640 --> 01:00:16,560
the orphanage would reward
the family planning officials

274
01:00:16,560 --> 01:00:19,560
and then adopt that child
internationally.

275
01:00:21,920 --> 01:00:24,560
I lived in China until I was 26,

276
01:00:24,560 --> 01:00:28,200
but I'd never heard that government
officials were confiscating babies

277
01:00:28,200 --> 01:00:30,920
during the one-child policy.

278
01:00:30,920 --> 01:00:35,160
I was shocked when Brian said
the story was uncovered years ago

279
01:00:35,160 --> 01:00:37,080
when I was still living in China.

280
01:00:38,040 --> 01:00:39,880
This was me back then.

281
01:00:42,120 --> 01:00:46,360
Throughout my life, I was taught
to believe the love of my country

282
01:00:46,360 --> 01:00:49,000
was equal to love of
the government and the party.

283
01:00:50,560 --> 01:00:53,400
Now, when I look back
at this time in my life,

284
01:00:53,400 --> 01:00:55,520
I'm amazed at my ignorance.

285
01:01:05,800 --> 01:01:11,200
The Chinese government exerted a lot
of influence to suppress the story,

286
01:01:11,200 --> 01:01:14,920
threatened the newspaper,
threatened the reporter...

287
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:18,920
The reporter ended up
having to leave China, you know,

288
01:01:18,920 --> 01:01:22,160
because of that kind of stuff.

289
01:01:22,160 --> 01:01:25,360
I e-mailed the journalist,
who is in exile in Hong Kong,

290
01:01:25,360 --> 01:01:28,280
and asked him if he could meet me.

291
01:01:28,280 --> 01:01:31,520
He agreed, but only if
we meet in a hotel,

292
01:01:31,520 --> 01:01:34,320
because he didn't want
to reveal his address.

293
01:01:49,480 --> 01:01:52,200
Pang had extensive evidence.

294
01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:57,280
He and a colleague had taken cameras
to Hunan province in 2010.

295
01:01:57,280 --> 01:02:00,720
The government had targeted
families in Longhui county,

296
01:02:00,720 --> 01:02:04,200
one of the poorest places
in all of China.

297
01:02:04,200 --> 01:02:06,000
DOGS BARK

298
01:03:47,880 --> 01:03:50,400
Growing up, I saw signs
like this everywhere.

299
01:04:55,720 --> 01:04:58,480
Then he showed me
footage of Shuangjie Zeng.

300
01:04:58,480 --> 01:05:00,560
He told me
that Zeng had a twin sister

301
01:05:00,560 --> 01:05:02,400
who was taken away from the family.

302
01:05:56,000 --> 01:06:00,560
In Hong Kong, Pang wrote a book
titled The Orphans Of Shao.

303
01:06:00,560 --> 01:06:03,000
He used the twin girl's
picture on the cover.

304
01:06:03,960 --> 01:06:06,080
It couldn't be published in China.

305
01:06:06,080 --> 01:06:08,120
An English version was published

306
01:06:08,120 --> 01:06:11,040
with the help of
a US non-profit organisation.

307
01:06:20,400 --> 01:06:24,000
Since Pang's report
was published in 2011,

308
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:27,880
the situation of the families
in Shaoyang is basically the same.

309
01:06:27,880 --> 01:06:31,240
There has been no accountability
for the people responsible.

310
01:06:31,240 --> 01:06:32,680
DOG BARKS

311
01:08:26,360 --> 01:08:29,920
I told Lan the story about
my aunt and my missing cousin.

312
01:08:29,920 --> 01:08:31,600
She said she might be able to help.

313
01:09:44,360 --> 01:09:48,360
After meeting with my aunt,
Lan kept travelling around China,

314
01:09:48,360 --> 01:09:53,200
gathering DNA from families to test
for matches with children abroad.

315
01:09:53,200 --> 01:09:54,960
One thing that struck me

316
01:09:54,960 --> 01:09:58,640
was that everyone we spoke to said
the same things about the policy.

317
01:10:16,360 --> 01:10:20,600
As I heard the answer again
and again - "I had no choice" -

318
01:10:20,600 --> 01:10:24,880
I realised that you could ask
anyone in any part of China

319
01:10:24,880 --> 01:10:28,120
about how the one-child policy
affected them,

320
01:10:28,120 --> 01:10:30,400
and all of them
would say the same thing.

321
01:10:36,080 --> 01:10:38,840
I was so angry,
even with my own family,

322
01:10:38,840 --> 01:10:40,880
that there wasn't more
to be said or done.

323
01:10:42,840 --> 01:10:46,080
There was such a shared
sense of helplessness.

324
01:10:46,080 --> 01:10:50,280
It reminded me when every major life
decision is made for you,

325
01:10:50,280 --> 01:10:54,480
for all your life, it's hard to feel
responsible for the consequences.

326
01:11:02,440 --> 01:11:05,560
Long Lan and Brian started
testing the DNA samples

327
01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:07,000
she brought back from China.

328
01:11:08,120 --> 01:11:12,200
They didn't find my cousin,
but they did discover a match.

329
01:11:12,200 --> 01:11:16,080
A girl in the United States who is
a DNA match to a family in China.

330
01:11:21,800 --> 01:11:25,400
This is the list of all
the DNA that we've got.

331
01:11:25,400 --> 01:11:29,280
All of it comes into
GEDmatch Genesis database.

332
01:11:29,280 --> 01:11:32,120
So that, that's a free
database that allows us

333
01:11:32,120 --> 01:11:37,200
then to compare our DNA
with all the DNA in the database.

334
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:39,160
I was going through,
Lan was doing some work

335
01:11:39,160 --> 01:11:41,480
and I was just going through,
and I go through

336
01:11:41,480 --> 01:11:44,600
each of the matches to see if there
was any that were close matches.

337
01:11:44,600 --> 01:11:48,760
And we got to one of the birth
families, and it matched to a girl.

338
01:11:48,760 --> 01:11:51,840
Of course I immediately
reached out to the adoptee,

339
01:11:51,840 --> 01:11:54,240
sent her an e-mail
and let her know that

340
01:11:54,240 --> 01:11:57,160
if she wanted more information,
she could write us.

341
01:11:57,160 --> 01:12:00,400
And then she wrote back and said,
"Thank you for reaching out to me.

342
01:12:00,400 --> 01:12:02,400
"At this moment
I do not want information

343
01:12:02,400 --> 01:12:03,880
"regarding my birth family.

344
01:12:03,880 --> 01:12:05,800
"I'm not really interested
at this time."

345
01:12:37,120 --> 01:12:40,520
Lan told me that it's actually
very common that adoptees

346
01:12:40,520 --> 01:12:42,800
do not want to contact
their birth families.

347
01:12:44,440 --> 01:12:48,640
This also included the children
she located from Hunan province

348
01:12:48,640 --> 01:12:51,640
who were kidnapped and sent
to orphanages by the government.

349
01:15:10,760 --> 01:15:13,760
After leaving Utah, I decided
to take another trip to China

350
01:15:13,760 --> 01:15:15,280
with my son.

351
01:15:16,680 --> 01:15:20,760
I wanted to follow up with the twin
girl whose sister is in America.

352
01:15:20,760 --> 01:15:23,680
I brought the book written
by the journalist in Hong Kong.

353
01:15:26,120 --> 01:15:29,560
While there was no DNA match
for Zeng and her twin sister,

354
01:15:29,560 --> 01:15:32,400
her story had already been
made public.

355
01:15:32,400 --> 01:15:36,760
An American journalist located her
twin sister in the United States.

356
01:16:45,320 --> 01:16:48,440
While the American family
did not want to be interviewed,

357
01:16:48,440 --> 01:16:51,320
Zeng and her twin sister
connected through social media.

358
01:19:00,120 --> 01:19:03,760
Many years ago, I felt embarrassed
for having a brother.

359
01:19:06,320 --> 01:19:09,560
But now I feel lucky
that I had someone to grow up with.

360
01:19:11,600 --> 01:19:14,640
I want my son to have
a sibling like I did.

361
01:19:14,640 --> 01:19:16,920
But I want that decision
to be my own.

362
01:19:18,120 --> 01:19:20,120
I'm struck by the irony

363
01:19:20,120 --> 01:19:23,800
that I left a country where the
government forced women to abort

364
01:19:23,800 --> 01:19:28,120
and I moved to another country where
governments restrict abortions.

365
01:19:29,880 --> 01:19:32,720
On the surface
they seem like opposites,

366
01:19:32,720 --> 01:19:36,800
but both are about taking away
women's control of their own bodies.

367
01:19:47,560 --> 01:19:50,280
The one-child policy
lasted for 35 years.

368
01:19:52,280 --> 01:19:54,840
Now there aren't enough
young people in China

369
01:19:54,840 --> 01:19:56,920
to work and care for the elderly.

370
01:19:59,520 --> 01:20:02,800
So China is introducing
a new family planning policy.

371
01:20:19,040 --> 01:20:21,880
The signs painted all over
my village have been changed.

372
01:20:24,680 --> 01:20:27,560
Every trace of the one-child
policy is being erased.

373
01:20:46,840 --> 01:20:49,520
But the memory of what
the policy really was

374
01:20:49,520 --> 01:20:51,880
survives in the minds
of the people who lived it.

375
01:20:53,000 --> 01:20:56,600
If these memories of
the one-child policy fade away,

376
01:20:56,600 --> 01:20:59,240
the only thing left
will be propaganda.