Chinese Billionaires Become Fathers to Dozens of Children in the US Thanks to Surrogate Mothers. One of Them Claimed 100 Children
In the US, a whole mini-industry has formed, serving a new demand from the Chinese elite: the creation of vast dynasties with dozens of offspring, born to American surrogate mothers. Wealthy clients from the Celestial Empire exploit loopholes in legislation to circumvent restrictions at home and secure US citizenship for their children. In some cases, prospective parents do not even personally appear in America. The Wall Street Journal introduces the details.
Billionaire Xu Bo, photo date unknown. Photo: Weibo
Court officials in Los Angeles, reviewing standard paternity applications in cases of surrogacy, discovered an anomaly: the same name repeatedly appeared in the documents.
As The Wall Street Journal writes, it turned out that a Chinese billionaire had filed paternity applications for four children from different surrogate mothers who had not even been born yet. Moreover, additional court scrutiny revealed that he had already become or was about to become the father of at least eight more.
100 Children and a Dream of a Dynasty
This billionaire turned out to be Xu Bo, the head of a major Chinese video game development company, Duoyi Network. He lives in China and leads a rather reclusive lifestyle. At a hearing in the summer of 2023, the businessman was present via video link. Through an interpreter, he told the judge that he plans to have around 20 children born in the US — predominantly boys, as he considers them "better than girls" — so that they might one day lead his business empire.
According to WSJ data, some of his children were already being raised by nannies in Irvine, near Los Angeles, while documents for their departure to China were being processed. Xu Bo himself admitted to the judge that he had not yet seen these children in person, as he was busy with work.
The judge rejected his petition, finding that Xu's described attitude towards children did not resemble true parenthood at all. This decision left the children, whose births had already been paid for, in legal uncertainty.
Xu Bo is a person who is extremely active online but remains almost invisible in real life: he rarely speaks to journalists and has not been photographed in public for almost ten years.
Journalists found a statement from his company asserting that the man has "a little over 100" children born in the US through surrogacy.
As the WSJ writes, slogans like "more children — fewer problems," fantasies about creating his own "dynasty," and even fantasies that his children might one day marry Elon Musk's children, were heard from accounts linked to Xu.
Illustrative photo: AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
A 'Turnkey Baby' for $200,000
The publication notes that Xu Bo is just the most striking example of a large-scale trend in the US, where surrogacy in many states is almost unregulated at the federal level, and court procedures related to paternity establishment often take place behind closed doors and are not always recorded in public court registries. This significantly limits oversight of the industry.
Wealthy Chinese, utilizing loopholes in legislation and the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution (which guarantees citizenship to all born in the country), are creating vast families. The cost of one child can reach $200,000.
To serve the demand from wealthy foreigners, an entire ecosystem has formed in the US: agencies, law firms, clinics, and nanny services ready to pick up newborns from the maternity ward. Parents can send biomaterial abroad and receive a child "with delivery."
Another example cited by the WSJ is Wang Huiyu, the head of an educational company. The man hired American models and women with scientific degrees as egg donors to have 10 daughters. His goal is to raise them and one day marry them off to world leaders.
Wang Huiyu. Photo: Tan Daming/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images
American surrogacy agencies admit that client requests are sometimes shocking. One agency owner in California recounted helping fulfill an "order" for 100 children, which was distributed among several firms.
Lawyers also encounter a similar consumerist attitude and are forced to explain to wealthy clients the difference between a maternity ward and a store.
“I said, 'No, we are not a supermarket to sell in bulk,'” the newspaper quotes lawyer Amanda Troxler, who was approached by a client requesting a 'discount' for selecting 8-10 surrogate mothers simultaneously.
Industry representatives acknowledge another problem: oversight is so weak that it is almost impossible to track how many parallel arrangements the same client has with different agencies.
The owner of a California agency told journalists about a single father who secretly ordered four children from different firms. When he was informed about the impending birth of another infant, he panicked: "We are already caring for two!" However, as the agency owner noted, unlike a store purchase, there is "no going back" here — if you change your mind, "canceling" a child is impossible.
Political Resonance
Nathan Zhang, founder of the IVF USA clinic network, which operates in the US and Mexico and serves wealthy Chinese clients, explained to the publication the evolution of the surrogacy market. Previously, his clients were mainly parents trying to circumvent China's "one-child policy." The point was that children returned to China as US citizens were legally not subject to the PRC's system of fines and restrictions.
The "one-child policy" was abolished in 2015, but demand did not disappear — it transformed. More recently, a new category of clients emerged — the so-called "crazy rich."
“Elon Musk is now becoming a role model,” said Zhang. An increasing number of such clients, according to him, order dozens, or even hundreds, of children born in the US. Their goal is no longer simply to have offspring, but to "create an unshakeable family dynasty."
This business attracts the attention of authorities in both countries, although Beijing's reaction is ambiguous. Formally, surrogacy is prohibited in China. However, as the WSJ writes, the government usually turns a blind eye to citizens seeking such services abroad, and even allows foreign agencies to quietly advertise themselves within the country.
Nevertheless, when such stories become public, it causes scandals and harsh reactions, as society considers the practice exploitative. The WSJ recalls the scandal involving China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who disappeared after it was revealed that he had an affair with a famous TV presenter who gave birth to a child via a surrogate mother in the US.
Concerns are also growing in the US. Republican Senator Rick Scott introduced a bill to ban surrogacy for citizens of certain foreign countries, including China.
He referred to a federal investigation in Los Angeles, within which a couple of Chinese origin were found to have more than two dozen children, almost all of whom were born via surrogate mothers in recent years. FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents have already interviewed some surrogate mothers who worked with Chinese clients, but the purposes of these actions were not officially explained.
Nevertheless, despite the risks, investors are betting on the growth of this market, investing money in networks of infertility treatment clinics geared towards Asian parents.