By Hannah Nightingale – The Postmillennial
21 children born to a Chinese couple in California through surrogacy have been placed in protective custody while an investigation into alleged child abuse is carried out. Federal sources in California confirmed that they were investigating an alleged “rent-a-womb” scheme, under the name Marks Surrogacy. The business address is listed as the couple’s Arcadia address.
Arcadia police’s investigation into the matter determined that the children are the product of a surrogacy operation owned by the couple. The department is working with the FBI on the case. A federal source called the situation “very bizarre,” adding, “babies are being neglected, then transported back to China.” He said that this was a “national security threat.” It is not clear if the 21 children are the total number of children that were birthed to the couple via surrogacy.
65-year-old Guojun Xuan and 38-year-old Silvia Zhang were arrested for felony child endangerment but later released and charges have not yet been filed against them. An arrest warrant has been issued for their nanny, 56-year-old Chunmei Li, who investigators say is the main suspect in the child abuse case, per ABC 7.
Police went to the $4.1 million Arcadia, California home after the couple’s May arrest in response to reports of a two-month-old suffering from a traumatic brain injury, the Daily Mail reported. The address for Marks Surrogacy is listed as the Arcadia home, KTLA reported, which is also the residence of Zhang. The company has since changed its name to Future Spring Surrogacy.
A search warrant was obtained, and Arcadia police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo said, “We discovered numerous children – 15 children to be specific – ranging in ages from 2 months old to 13 years old.” An additional six children had previously been moved to other homes prior to the authorities getting involved and are now in federal custody.
“Many of the children were birthed through surrogacy and then the male and female at the residence took legal guardianship of those kids,” Cieadlo said. All 21 of the children were confirmed to be the children of Xuan and Zhang, though it is not clear if the children belong biologically to both of them or if donor eggs or sperm were involved. 17 of the children were three-years-old or younger. All of the children are in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services.
In regards to the nanny still on the loose, Cieadlo said, “The discipline, both verbally and physical, was severe to the point where it supported the beliefs that child abuse was occurring inside the home.”
One of the mothers hired by the couple, Kayla Elliot, told ABC 7, “It’s horrific, it’s disturbing, it’s damaging emotionally.” She said that the couple had told her they only had one other child. Elliot is working to get custody of the child she birthed for them though that child is not biologically hers.
“These agencies, we’re supposed to trust them and follow their guidance and come to find out this whole thing was a scam, and the parents own the agency—that was not disclosed at all beforehand,” Elliot said.
Elliot told the Daily Wire that she was one of many women who had been contacted through Facebook by Marks Surrogacy. The company pairs parents with potential surrogate mothers. In this case, however, the couple was the only family paired with the surrogates.
The surrogacy agency reached out to Elliot in January 2024 about becoming a surrogate. A message viewed by the outlet stated, “I saw your post that you’re interested in becoming a surrogate. I currently am working with a Chinese couple located in Los Angeles CA. They are seeking to find a surrogate to have a baby for them. Would you be open to talk more about it?”
Elliot agreed, and signed a contract with the agency that February. A July 2024 post on Facebook from the agency depicting Elliot stated that “the embryo is transferred successfully by early July this month.”
Elliot began connecting with other surrogate mothers when she was around 17 weeks pregnant, and said that she had connected with multiple mothers who were carrying babies for the same couple at the same time. After Elliot gave birth to the baby, she connected with yet other mothers carrying babies for the same couple.
She said that these women were from around the country, and began sharing photos of pictures of the same intended mother. “There was actual diehard, like, picture proof of all these women holding their babes with the same mom standing right next to them,” Elliot told Fell in an interview. Some of them were within weeks of each other. I had the baby March 13, there was a girl who delivered the last week of February, another girl who delivered a couple weeks after I did.”
Kallie Fell, executive director of the nonprofit Center of Bioethics and Culture who is working with Elliot, said, “Anything goes. And these clinics, these agencies are not regulated by any governing body.”
She said that while having so many children through surrogates is not illegal, it raises questions. “That to me smells of trafficking, child trafficking. What are the intentions of having that many children at home through these assisted reproductive technologies?”