US judge exposes hidden Chinese surrogacy network: How US fertility laws are being used to build mega families

Two Chinese families are seen at a park in Beijing on November 26, 2013. (AFP file image used for representational purpose)

A quiet but striking trend has been unfolding inside the global fertility industry. Over the past decade, a growing number of ultra-wealthy Chinese individuals have turned to surrogacy in the United States to build families of a scale that would be impossible in China.

In some cases, the goal is no longer parenthood but legacy. Court officials, surrogacy professionals and US investigators now say that what began as a workaround for China’s population controls has evolved into an effort by a few elites to create what they openly describe as dynasties.

A rare courtroom intervention in Los Angeles in 2023 exposed how far this phenomenon has gone.

In the summer of 2023, Los Angeles County family court Judge Amy Pellman noticed something unusual. The same intended parent was appearing again and again in confidential surrogacy filings.

According to people present at the hearing, the parent was Xu Bo, a Chinese videogame executive. Xu joined the proceedings remotely through an interpreter. Court records showed he was seeking parental rights for at least four unborn children. Officials later discovered that he had already fathered, or was in the process of fathering, at least eight more children through US surrogates.

Xu reportedly told the court that his long term goal was to have around 20 children born in the United States, mainly boys, whom he believed would one day take over leadership of his business. Several children were already living with nannies in Irvine, California, while paperwork was prepared for travel to China. Xu acknowledged he had not met them.

Judge Pellman was alarmed. People familiar with the hearing said she stressed that surrogacy was meant to help people form families, not to enable mass reproduction. In a highly unusual decision, she denied Xu’s petition for parentage, leaving the children in legal uncertainty despite the arrangements meeting standard procedures.

Xu’s company, Duoyi Network, denied the account. A spokesperson said, “The boss does not accept interview requests from anyone for any purpose,” adding that “much of what you described is untrue.”

Xu is not alone. Within elite Chinese circles, overseas surrogacy has become a way to pursue family sizes far beyond domestic limits.

Xu has publicly referred to himself as “China’s first father” and his company has claimed he has more than 100 children born through surrogacy in the US. He is also known as a vocal critic of feminism.

Another case that drew public outrage involved Wang Huiwu, CEO of Sichuan based XJ International Holdings. People familiar with his education business said he fathered 10 daughters through US surrogacy. Egg donors reportedly included models, a finance PhD holder and a musician, with payments ranging from $6,000 to $7,500 per donation.

Those close to Wang said he hoped his daughters would one day marry powerful global figures. Screenshots allegedly showing messages from a shared nanny circulated online in 2021, triggering backlash. Domestic media criticised the practice as exploitative. XJ International’s share price fell sharply. The company dismissed the claims as rumours and later declined to comment.

This surge has been made possible by a loosely regulated international fertility market. In states like California, surrogacy laws allow foreign intended parents to work with US carriers. Court proceedings are confidential and leave little public trace.

This secrecy allows intended parents to work with multiple agencies at once. Industry professionals say it is often impossible to know whether one client is commissioning dozens of pregnancies across jurisdictions.

California agency owner Joy Millan told The Wall Street Journal that a single father from China approached her seeking four surrogates. She later learned he had contacted other agencies at the same time.

Each surrogacy arrangement earns agencies $40,000 to $50,000. When IVF, legal services, insurance and childcare are added, the cost per child can approach $200,000.

Experts say parents can now send genetic material abroad, manage pregnancies remotely and place newborns with caregivers without ever entering the US.

Surrogacy initially helped Chinese families bypass the one child policy, which ended in 2015. Children born abroad as US citizens were not subject to penalties.

Nathan Zhang, founder and CEO of IVF USA, said his early clients were mainly trying to avoid those restrictions. That has changed.

“Elon Musk is becoming a role model now,” Zhang told WSJ, explaining that some clients want dozens or even hundreds of children to build what he called an “unstoppable family dynasty.”

Zhang recalled one education sector client who wanted more than 200 children at once. “I asked him directly, ‘How do you plan to raise all these children?’ He was speechless,” Zhang said. Zhang declined the case.

Another California agency owner said he helped fulfil a request for 100 children over several years. A Los Angeles surrogacy attorney said he assisted a Chinese billionaire who had 20 children through surrogacy.

Amanda Troxler, a Los Angeles based lawyer, recalled a client asking for a bulk discount. “I was like, ‘No, we’re not Costco,’” she told WSJ.

While overseas surrogacy is not formally banned, high profile cases have triggered outrage.

In 2019, actress Zheng Shuang hired two US surrogates with her then partner Zhang Heng. After their breakup, court records showed Zheng allegedly considered terminating one pregnancy late into gestation.

After Zhang revealed the dispute on Weibo, China’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission condemned the practice.

“For Chinese citizens to exploit legal loopholes and flee to the United States simply because surrogacy is prohibited in China is by no means abiding by the law,” it said.

Zheng lost endorsements and was fined nearly $46 million for tax violations. Zhang was fined $5 million and later founded a California surrogacy agency for Chinese clients.

In 2023, scrutiny intensified after the disappearance of foreign minister Qin Gang following reports that journalist Fu Xiaotian had a child via US surrogacy. Both later vanished from public view.

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu later said health authorities believe surrogacy can lead to a “serious family and social ethical crisis.”

Children born in the US automatically receive citizenship under the 14th Amendment. In 2020, Washington tightened visa rules against birth tourism.

In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order denying citizenship unless one parent is a citizen or permanent resident. The order is under Supreme Court review.

Last month, Senator Rick Scott introduced a bill to ban US surrogacy services for people from countries including China. He cited a human trafficking probe involving a Chinese American couple with more than two dozen surrogate born children.

Surrogates working with Chinese parents have since been interviewed by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

According to Emory University researchers, US surrogacy cycles involving international parents quadrupled between 2014 and 2019. Chinese clients accounted for 41 per cent of foreign cases.

The trend slowed during the pandemic but industry insiders say demand has returned sharply, raising ethical, legal and political questions that governments are only beginning to confront.