California Surrogacy Agencies Cash In On Wealthy Chinese Demand

An Army veteran is running a California surrogacy agency that facilitates wealthy Chinese nationals having children through American surrogates — with the resulting babies obtaining U.S. citizenship at birth.

Haotian Bai, a 37-year-old U.S. Army veteran and founder of the Irvine-based Patriot Conceptions, has built a business connecting intended parents with American surrogates and egg donors. According to the New York Post, a substantial share of the agency’s international clientele comes from China, where surrogacy is prohibited domestically.

The arrangement has drawn new scrutiny after a California surrogate identified as “Judy” discovered she was carrying a child intended for Chinese billionaire Xu Bo, who has reportedly fathered more than 100 children through U.S. surrogacy arrangements.

Judy told CBS News she had responded to an Instagram advertisement offering $120,000 to become a surrogate. She said Patriot Conceptions told her the intended parent was a single father seeking to expand his family, and that when she asked how many surrogates he had hired, she was told the number was close to two dozen.

Leaked documents obtained by CBS identified Xu as the intended father. Judy said she repeatedly asked to meet him but never did. “I feel blindsided. I feel misled,” Judy told CBS.

Patriot Conceptions said it facilitated the surrogacy journey but was not Xu’s only agency. In a statement, Bai said the surrogate’s concerns deserved to be taken seriously. The company has disputed aspects of CBS’s reporting about its role in the arrangement.

The case has brought attention to a largely unregulated international surrogacy market that has grown rapidly in the United States.

A 2024 study by researchers at Emory University found that international intended parents accounted for nearly 40% of U.S. gestational-carrier cycles by 2019. From 2014 through 2020, 41.7% of international intended parents in the study were from China, making Chinese nationals the largest group among international clients.

The demand has been especially concentrated in California. The Emory researchers found that nearly 65% of gestational-carrier cycles involving international intended parents from 2014 through 2020 took place at California clinics.

The Wall Street Journal reported in December 2025 that wealthy Chinese clients have increasingly used American surrogacy services to have children despite commercial surrogacy being illegal in China. The Journal described a growing industry of American fertility clinics, surrogacy agencies, attorneys, and other businesses serving Chinese clients who want children born in the United States.

Some wealthy Chinese clients have sought unusually large numbers of children. Xu, the billionaire at the center of the latest controversy, told a Los Angeles judge in 2023 that he hoped to have roughly 20 U.S.-born children through surrogacy, according to people who attended the confidential hearing described by the Journal. The judge reportedly rejected his petition for parental rights at the time.

Xu has subsequently been reported to have more than 100 children born through U.S. surrogates. He has disputed the larger estimates, saying he has custody of 12 children born through U.S. surrogacy, though his company acknowledged after the Journal’s reporting that the effort had produced “a little over 100” children. His former partner, Tang Jing, who is in a custody and financial dispute with him in China, has claimed he may have as many as 300.

The legal appeal of American surrogacy for foreign nationals is partly tied to birthright citizenship. In June, the Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship for children born to parents who were unlawfully or temporarily present in the country. The court held that Trump’s executive order violated the 14th Amendment.

That ruling did not specifically address children born through surrogacy, but the broader citizenship rule remains a significant part of the international fertility market described by the Journal and Post.

Bai has openly promoted Patriot Conceptions as an international business. In a 2025 profile published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Bai said international clients accounted for 40% of the company’s business. The company says it has expanded internationally through partnerships with clinics and legal professionals.

According to the Chamber, Patriot Conceptions was founded in 2019. Bai previously founded Pacific Surrogacy, another California-based surrogacy company. 

Before entering the surrogacy industry, Bai lived in Hawaii. The Post reported that he helped arrange Chinese student internships in the Hawaii state legislature, a program later shut down amid allegations about how the students were placed and housed.

Former Hawaii state Rep. Matthew LoPresti, a Democrat, told the Post that he was concerned about students appearing in his office without his request, particularly because his office had been involved in sensitive military and intelligence matters. The Post reported that Bai denied selling the internships and faced no charges over the episode.

The surrogacy controversy comes as CBS has documented broader concerns about the industry’s lack of oversight. In a yearlong investigation, CBS interviewed dozens of surrogates and reported cases involving foreign intended parents, multiple simultaneous surrogacies, and disputes over compensation and disclosure. 

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