The Chinese billionaire paid for dozens of children: The US surrogacy industry exposed

A CBS investigation reveals severe loopholes in the US surrogacy industry: women recruited through social media, intended parents secretly managing parallel proceedings, and an extreme case of a Chinese billionaire who fathered over 100 children. The surrogates were unaware of the scale of the families being created, and federal regulation is virtually nonexistent.

A year-long CBS investigation reveals a series of severe loopholes in the US surrogacy industry. Women, many without legal status, are recruited through social media ads and promised payments that are not always fulfilled. Intended parents manage parallel proceedings with multiple surrogates without the women knowing about each other or the scale of the families being created. The extreme case is Chinese billionaire Xu Bo, a senior figure in the video game industry, who is the father of over 100 children born through surrogacy in the US and granted birthright citizenship. A former partner claimed his number of children could reach 300. Xu disputed the figures and stated he has 12 children in his custody. In another case, Sylvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan from California were arrested in July 2025 for bringing at least 25 children into the world through surrogates, suspected of endangering the children's welfare. All 17 surrogates interviewed by CBS said they did not know the couple was creating a family on such a scale. The affair ties into the broader US debate on birthright citizenship, with Trump attempting to limit the right through an executive order that was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2026.