US seeks US$100 million bail each for Chinese-born couple in surrogacy child abuse case

Los Angeles County prosecutors are seeking bail of US$100 million each for a Chinese-born couple charged on Tuesday with conspiring to abuse young children who were born through surrogacy and raised in their California mansion.

Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, allegedly directed nannies to physically punish the children, watched the beatings through an extensive surveillance system and coached children before police arrived to deny the abuse, according to a felony complaint.

At least 14 surrogate-born children, some as young as two months old, were abused, the district attorney’s office said. It said the couple were accused of conspiring to subject 15 of the 16 children living in the home to repeated physical abuse.

“The number of children who were subjected to this alleged horrific abuse is unprecedented,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement.