Prioritizing China’s Vulnerable Children after the CCP’s Suspension of International Adoptions

September 2024

Past Event

Prioritizing China’s Vulnerable Children after the CCP’s Suspension of International Adoptions

Past Event

Hudson Institute

September 27, 2024

A general view of the Harbin Holy Iveron Icon Orthodox Church and orphanage on December 6, 2017, in Harbin, China. (Tao Zhang via Getty Images)

September 2024

Past Event

Speakers:

Chelsea Sobolik

Author

Rana Siu Inboden

Senior Fellow, Robert Strauss Center for International Affairs and Law, University of Texas-Austin

Karla Thrasher

Senior Director of International Adoption, Lifeline

Shaoey Chapman

Certified Child Life Specialist, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, Vanderbilt

Shaoey Chapman is a certified child life specialist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. She is trust based relational intervention (TBRI) certified and has a master of social work from the University of Alabama. She was adopted from China when she was eight months old and has worked closely with the nonprofit Show Hope, which aims to break down barriers between waiting children and loving families.

Listen to Event Audio

The Chinese Communist Party made a seemingly sudden decision to end its international adoption program in late August. Then, in September, the State Department told American families who were matched with children in China that they would likely never be united with the children they were pursuing for adoption. The news was a devastating blow to the hopes and dreams of hundreds of Chinese children and their prospective families, many of whom had been waiting for their adoptions to be finalized since before the start of the pandemic. This decision also leaves hundreds of thousands of children, most of whom have special needs, languishing in Chinese orphanages.

Join Hudson for a conversation on what the US government and the international community can do to help these children and their families.

April 2026

In-Person Event | Hudson Institute

Sustaining the Edge: A Conversation with Congressman Ronny Jackson on US-Israel Technology and Security

Featured Speakers:

Joel Rayburn

Congressman Ronny Jackson

April 2026

In-Person Event | Hudson Institute

Sustaining the Edge: A Conversation with Congressman Ronny Jackson on US-Israel Technology and Security

Please join Director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East Michael Doran and Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-TX) for a discussion on the congressman’s recently introduced United States-Israel Framework for Upgraded Technologies, Research, and Enhanced Security Act and the strategic importance of the US-Israel partnership.

Featured Speakers:

Joel Rayburn

Congressman Ronny Jackson

Learn More

30 - 03

April - May 2026

In-Person Event | Hudson Institute

The Era of Rivalry: American Power and the Contemporary World Order | Hudson Institute Political Studies Policy Certificate Program

Featured Speakers:

Peter Campbell

Rachel Mackey

Mike Watson

30 - 03

April - May 2026

In-Person Event | Hudson Institute

The Era of Rivalry: American Power and the Contemporary World Order | Hudson Institute Political Studies Policy Certificate Program

This certificate program is designed to equip policy professionals with a rigorous framework for understanding great power competition and the evolving structure of the international order.

Featured Speakers:

Peter Campbell

Rachel Mackey

Mike Watson

Learn More

May 2026

In-Person Event | Hudson Institute

A Conversation with Former METI Minister Nishimura on Prime Minister Takaichi's Policy Outlook and Solutions

Featured Speakers:

Yasutoshi Nishimura

Kenneth R. Weinstein

May 2026

In-Person Event | Hudson Institute

A Conversation with Former METI Minister Nishimura on Prime Minister Takaichi's Policy Outlook and Solutions

On May 6, Hudson Japan Chair Kenneth R. Weinstein will welcome Yasutoshi Nishimura, former head of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to Hudson.

Featured Speakers:

Yasutoshi Nishimura

Kenneth R. Weinstein

Learn More

May 2026

In-Person Event | Hudson Institute

China’s Persecution: Assault on All Faiths

Featured Speakers:

Sam Brownback

Hon. Frank Wolf

Michael Arkush

Mihrigul Tursun

Arjia Rinpoche

Frances Hui

Wang Chunyan

Pastor Pan Yongguang

Peter Xu

Enes Freedom

Pastor Corey Jackson

Grace Jin Drexel

Moderator:

Nina Shea

This picture taken on July 19, 2023 shows a view of a watchtower of an alleged detention facility in Artux in Kizilsu Prefecture in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. Since 2017, more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims have been swept into internment camps where human rights abuses are commonplace, researchers, campaigners and members of the diaspora say. Beijing says the facilities were voluntary centres for teaching vocational skills, closed years ago after their inhabitants "graduated" into stab

May 2026

In-Person Event | Hudson Institute

China’s Persecution: Assault on All Faiths

To address these concerns, former senator Sam Brownback, who served as ambassador at large for international religious freedom in the first Trump administration, will join Senior Fellow Nina Shea to propose new policies for the US government and actions for the American public.