A California surrogate says she only learned she was carrying a baby for Chinese gaming billionaire Xu Bo after journalists investigating the U.S. surrogacy industry revealed his identity to her.
The surrogate, identified only as Judy to protect her privacy, said the matching agency originally described the client as a single father who simply wanted to expand his family. Judy, a single mother raising a seven-year-old, entered the agreement after seeing an Instagram advertisement offering $120,000 (£88,839). She hoped the payment would help her buy a home.
Judy said she felt blindsided after CBS News reporters linked her pregnancy to Xu by examining leaked documents. She had repeatedly asked to meet the intended father, but those meetings never occurred. When she questioned whether other women were carrying children for the same man, she was told there could be nearly two dozen.
The revelation highlights growing scrutiny over transparency and safeguards in American commercial surrogacy. Despite her rising concerns over the lack of clear information, Judy chose to continue the pregnancy due to her financial situation and encouragement from friends and family.
Xu, the founder of Chinese gaming firm Duoyi Network, is at the center of conflicting claims regarding the total number of children he has fathered through commercial surrogacy.
His former partner, Tang Jing, alleged that Xu has as many as 300 children. The Wall Street Journal reported that Xu has fathered more than 100 children through U.S. surrogacy arrangements, aiming to build a pool of U.S.-born heirs to take over his business empire.
The Journal also detailed court proceedings in California where a judge handled parental rights petitions for several unborn children while Xu was actively fathering others through surrogates.
Duoyi Network has disputed those accounts. The company denied the 300-child claim while acknowledging that Xu has more than 100 children overall. It also disputed the reported figures for American surrogate births, stating that only 12 of his children were born through U.S. surrogacy.
The reports have sparked intense online debate, with social media users calling for stricter oversight and clearer disclosure rules for surrogates. The news investigations center on industry transparency and surrogate protections, with no findings that Xu breached U.S. laws.
