Report Exposes How U.S. Surrogacy Became a Gateway for Foreign Elites to Mass-Produce American-Born Heirs

An investigation details how wealthy Chinese nationals are using U.S. surrogates and birthright citizenship to establish sprawling families, prompting national security, abuse and policy concerns.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

A growing number of ultra-wealthy Chinese nationals are turning to U.S.-based surrogacy to have children born on American soil, leveraging the country’s largely unregulated surrogacy market and automatic birthright citizenship, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

One of the most prominent examples involves Chinese video game billionaire Xu Bo, founder of Duoyi Network, who has sought parental rights in Los Angeles courts for at least four unborn children while having already fathered or arranged surrogacy for at least eight additional children in the United States, the report said. The case comes amid renewed national debate over the 14th Amendment and whether automatic citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. should be limited.

During a confidential court hearing in 2023, Xu appeared by video from China and told a judge he hoped to have roughly 20 U.S.-born children, preferably boys, to inherit his business, according to the reporting. Several of those children were being cared for by nannies in Irvine, California, while paperwork was processed to allow them to travel to China.

Last month, Xu’s former girlfriend alleged on the Chinese social media platform Weibo that he had as many as 300 children living across properties in multiple countries. Duoyi Network disputed that figure but acknowledged that through years of U.S.-based surrogacy, Xu has “only a little over 100” children.

“The boss does not accept interview requests from anyone for any purpose,” a Duoyi Network representative told the Journal by email, adding that “much of what you described is untrue.” Neither Xu nor the company provided additional comment.

Federal and state authorities have also examined other cases involving Chinese nationals and large-scale surrogacy arrangements. In May, police launched a child abuse investigation into Chinese national Guojun Xuan and his wife after a two-month-old infant in their care was hospitalized with a head injury. The Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services later removed 21 children from the couple’s custody, including several born via surrogates.

Xuan previously served for more than two decades as a senior official in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region People’s Congress, a body linked to policies contributing to the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.

Industry insiders told the Journal that such cases are not isolated. Nathan Zhang, founder and CEO of IVF USA, which operates fertility clinics in the United States and Mexico catering to wealthy Chinese clients, said some foreign nationals seek dozens or even hundreds of U.S.-born children to establish what he described as an “unstoppable family dynasty.” One client, Zhang said, sought more than 200 children at once and was unable to explain how they would be raised.

Another California-based surrogacy agency owner told the outlet he assisted a Chinese parent seeking 100 children, distributing the request across multiple agencies. Wang Huiwu, another Chinese executive, reportedly used U.S. surrogates and egg donors to father 10 girls, intending to arrange marriages with influential men. Sources told the Journal he purchased dozens of eggs from models, a finance Ph.D., and a musician at prices ranging from $6,000 to $7,500 each.

Executives within the fertility industry said agencies often welcome large orders. A New York IVF clinic CEO told the Journal that when clients request multiple simultaneous surrogacies, agencies—typically paid $40,000 to $50,000 per surrogacy in addition to payments to carriers—often respond enthusiastically.

Data cited in the report shows U.S.-based surrogacy arrangements involving foreign nationals more than quadrupled from 780 carrier cycles in 2014 to 3,240 cycles in 2019, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all U.S. surrogacy cycles. Researchers from Emory University found that between 2014 and 2020, 41 percent of international surrogacy clients were from China.

Following revelations surrounding Guojun Xuan, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduced the Stopping Adversarial Foreign Exploitation of Kids in Domestic Surrogacy Act. The legislation would prohibit the use of U.S. surrogacy services by individuals from certain foreign adversary nations, including China.

“America’s surrogacy system is meant to help individuals build families—it should never be the avenue to allow abuse, neglect, or deceit of innocent women and babies,” Scott said when introducing the bill. “And it’s terrifying that this might be at the hands of foreign adversaries with the sole intent of having a child that is a U.S. citizen.”

The issue is unfolding alongside broader legal and constitutional debates. The Supreme Court is expected to consider President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship in early 2026, a case that could significantly reshape the legal landscape surrounding citizenship and surrogacy in the United States.