With One Eye Closed: Illegal Orphanages in Rural China
The state appreciates the crucial gap unregistered orphanages fill– until something goes wrong. In January of this year, The Huffington Post reported on a fire that killed six children and one young adult “at an illegally run orphanage in central China:” “The deaths Friday in Henan province’s Lankao county have
spotlighted China’s lack of government-run child services. They are
often left to private citizens with few resources and no legal
authority. The Lankao government earlier acknowledged that it had turned
a blind eye to the illegal orphanage, which cared for abandoned
children and young adults.…The deputy county governor said earlier that
some departments had failed in supervision and should shoulder
responsibility.”
