Xu's case—detailed in an investigation published Saturday by The Wall Street Journal—highlights what researchers have described as a sharp increase in Chinese intended parents. This demand has been met by an expanding network of fertility clinics, surrogates, brokers, law firms, and nanny services aiming to fast-track the transfer of these children to China.
Though China relaxed its decades-old one-child policy to two children in 2015 and then to three in 2021, surrogacy remains banned in the country over concerns it commodifies impoverished women. The rise of Chinese elites spending millions to have large families in the U.S. has raised questions about how this largely unregulated industry will shape the upbringing and well-being of the children involved.
