Chinese Amass U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogates

Xu Bo, top left, in an undated photo. Wang Huiwu, top right, seen in 2018. ACRC Global, a California surrogacy agency that markets to Chinese and other international clients, had a booth at the Beijing Medical and Health Exhibition in October.TAN DAMING/CHINA NEWS SERVICE/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGESInside a closed Los Angeles courtroom, something wasn't right.Clerks working for family court Judge Amy Pellman were reviewing routine surrogacy petitions when they spotted an unusual pattern: the same name, again and again.A Chinese billionaire was seeking parental rights to at least four unborn children, and the court's additional research showed that he had already fathered or was in the process of fathering at least eight more—all through surrogates.When Pellman called Xu Bo in for a confidential hearing in the summer of 2023, he never entered the courtroom, according to people who attended the hearing.The maker of fantasy video-games lived in China and appeared via video, speaking through an interpreter. He said he hoped to have 20 or so U.S.-born children through surrogacy—boys, because they're superior to girls—to one day take over his business.Several of his kids were being raised by nannies in nearby Irvine as they awaited paperwork to travel to China. He hadn’t yet met them, he told the judge, because work had been busy.Pellman was alarmed, according to the people who attended the hearing.The judge denied his request for parentage, leaving the children in legal limbo.The court declined to comment on Xu’s case.Xu, an online megaposter but real-life recluse, has rarely spoken with reporters and hasn’t been photographed in public for nearly a decade.