Legislative and judicial actions are emerging in response, including a proposed Senate bill to ban surrogacy for nationals from adversary nations and an upcoming Supreme Court case on birthright citizenship.
In the confidential setting of a Los Angeles courtroom, a pattern emerged that alarmed family court officials: a single Chinese billionaire was repeatedly petitioning for parental rights to children he had never met, born to American surrogate mothers. This case, involving video game magnate Xu Bo, who has publicly acknowledged fathering over one hundred U.S.-born children, exposes a burgeoning and largely unregulated phenomenon. Wealthy foreign nationals, primarily from China, are leveraging America’s surrogacy laws and the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship to orchestrate the births of dozens — sometimes hundreds — of American children, prompting profound questions about national security, child welfare, and the integrity of U.S. citizenship.
Driven by desires to forge what industry insiders term an “unstoppable family dynasty,” a subset of ultra-wealthy Chinese clients are pursuing surrogacy on an industrial scale. While precise numbers are elusive due to private court proceedings, reports from surrogacy professionals describe requests ranging from dozens to hundreds of children per individual. Nathan Zhang, founder of IVF USA, which caters to Chinese clients, described a new clientele inspired by figures like Elon Musk, seeking to build vast family enterprises. One client, he said, sought over 200 children at once but could not explain how they would be raised. Agencies, which can earn $40,000 to $50,000 per surrogacy arrangement, often welcome such large orders, with limited oversight to prevent parents from spreading requests across multiple firms.
The issue transcends unusual family planning and enters the realm of national security and abuse. A stark example is the case of Guojun Xuan, a former senior official in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region People’s Congress — a body linked to policies the U.S. has determined constitute genocide. In May 2025, Xuan and his wife were arrested in Arcadia, California, for child endangerment after their infant was hospitalized with a head injury. Authorities removed 21 children from their custody, nearly all born via surrogates in recent years. The FBI is now involved in the investigation. This case directly ties a foreign national, associated with adversarial government policies, to the alleged abuse of a small army of surrogate-born American citizens, highlighting the potential for exploitation within the system.
The United States presents a perfect environment for this practice due to a combination of permissive laws, lucrative financial incentives, and regulatory gaps. Domestic surrogacy is illegal in China, making the U.S. a destination for “regulatory arbitrage.” A sophisticated support industry of agencies, lawyers, and clinics has emerged to facilitate the process, sometimes enabling children to be procured without the parents ever setting foot in the country. The primary attraction is the 14th Amendment, which confers automatic citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. This constitutional right, long a political flashpoint, is now being accessed through a novel and costly loophole, allowing foreign elites to secure U.S. passports for their offspring en masse.
The growing awareness of these cases is spurring a political and legal response. Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the Stopping Adversarial Foreign Exploitation of Kids in Domestic Surrogacy Act, which would prohibit individuals from foreign adversary nations, including China, from using U.S. surrogacy services. Simultaneously, the Supreme Court is poised to consider a landmark case in early 2026 regarding President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship. The outcome could fundamentally reshape the legal landscape, potentially closing or narrowing the very pathway these individuals are using.
The emergence of mass, transactional surrogacy for the purpose of creating American-born heirs represents a complex challenge at the intersection of reproductive technology, immigration law, and national sovereignty. It tests the limits of birthright citizenship, a foundational American principle, by divorcing it from any tangible connection to the country beyond a commercial transaction for womb space. As these cases multiply, they force a national conversation about whether the current framework adequately protects children from becoming pawns in a global game of influence and dynasty-building, and whether the privileges of American citizenship should be so readily mass-produced for the offspring of foreign elites. The coming legal and legislative battles will determine if this practice is a novel exercise of personal liberty or an exploitative loophole that demands closing.
