The history of adoption from China is wrapped up with the economics and politics of the country as it went through various experiments and reforms. Just as China's explosive population in the 1960's and 1970's started to fall, its leaders implemented the One Child Policy which resulted in a drop in the birth rate that would have occurred without the policy. At the same time, international adoption was growing in other countries and families in the United States were more commonly starting to build or expand their families through international adoption. By the mid - 2000's international adoption from many countries reached a peak and then started to fall, in China and other countries.