A Chinese couple in California is accused of abusing at least 14 surrogate children

A Chinese couple in California is accused of abusing at least 14 surrogate children

Author, Olivia Ireland

Published 3 minutes ago

Reading time: 2 minutes

A California couple has been charged with multiple crimes, including abusing at least 14 children born through surrogacy, some as young as two months old, and obstructing witness testimony.

"The number of children being subjected to this horrific abuse is unprecedented," Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement.

U.S. media said Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang, a couple, were arrested at their Arcadia mansion on Tuesday.

According to the BBC's US partner CBS, the couple refused to plead guilty in a Pasadena court.

Mr Xuan, 66, and his wife Ms Zhang, 39, are accused of conspiring to repeatedly physically abuse 15 of the 16 children in their home.

Previously, 21 children had been removed from the couple's custody last year.

According to a U.S. criminal complaint, the couple ran their own surrogacy agency and were accused of making false statements to at least two surrogate women suggesting that Ms. Zhang was having difficulty conceiving.

As of May 2025, Ms. Zhang recorded the status of 21 children on a spreadsheet, including children born through surrogacy.

Officials said the investigation began that month when Ms. Zhang brought a two-month-old baby boy to the hospital with a head injury and told medical staff the child had fallen out of bed.

The couple's attorney, Mitchell Krems, said the allegation was a "misrepresentation" of the facts based on the evidence he reviewed, CBS Los Angeles reported.

California hospital staff notified law enforcement at the time. When police arrived at their mansion, they found three different rooms, dubbed the "Learning Center," overseen by multiple nannies and described by Hochman as a "house of horrors."

The large house is said to have 32 motion-sensing cameras, which Hochman said the couple used to monitor the nanny's efforts to discipline their children.

Videos allegedly show nannies spanking, slapping or hitting children.

A nanny, Chunmei Li, was accused of beating a two-month-old baby, causing head injuries two days before he was taken to hospital.

CBS Los Angeles also reported that Krems said the nanny surnamed Li was fired soon after the incident.

The 58-year-old nanny surnamed Li was charged with one felony count of child abuse, and the abuse may cause serious bodily injury or death.

In this regard, prosecutor Hochman said that the nanny is currently at large and the court has issued an arrest warrant of $105,000.

In July 2025, the couple's home was raided by the US police for the first time, and the police took 21 children away and handed them over to the custody of the state government.

The Arcadia Police Department said at the time that the children ranged in age from two months to 13 years old when the couple's home was raided, but most were between one and three years old.

Fifteen children were taken from the couple's large home, while six other children who lived elsewhere were also taken away later.

Krems stressed that his client, Mr. Xuan, was innocent.

CBS quoted the couple's defense attorney as saying his client was "under attack for exercising his right under the U.S. Constitution to have a large family."

Investigators believe the surrogate mothers, who came from across the country, were unaware they were carrying embryos for the couple at the same time.