CBS Investigation: Chinese Billionaire Xu Bo Disputes Surrogate's Claim He Fathered Over 100 US-Born Children

A California woman identified only as Judy signed up to be a surrogate after seeing a $120,000 offer on Instagram. Twelve weeks into her pregnancy, CBS News told her who the father actually was.

According to CBS News, leaked documents identified the intended father as Xu Bo, a Chinese billionaire and founder of the video game company Duoyi Network. Judy had been told she was carrying for a single father who wanted a large family. She had not been told his name, his nationality, or how many other women he had hired.

"I feel blindsided. I feel misled," Judy told CBS News. When she asked her agency, Patriot Conceptions, how many surrogates the father had hired, she said she was told the number was close to two dozen.

"It leaves me wondering: do I even have a right to know?" she said, after repeatedly asking to meet Xu and being turned down each time, according to CBS News and confirmed by the International Business Times UK and the Times of India.

The Numbers Don't Match

How many children Xu Bo has fathered through American surrogates is disputed, and none of the figures come from an independent government count.

Xu's former partner, Tang Jing, alleged in a custody dispute that he could have as many as 300 children, according to CBS News. Xu himself has said in a statement that he has custody of only 12 children born through U.S. surrogacy. A Wall Street Journal investigation published in December 2025 put the figure at just over 100. Duoyi Network reportedly acknowledged that number after initially rejecting the higher estimates, according to Breitbart.

Xu posted a photo on Chinese social media showing more than 100 young children seated in rows. Days later, a statement attributed to him in Chinese said he believes "more children bring more blessings" and hopes his actions will benefit "the long-term development of the Chinese nation," according to CBS News, Hindustan Times, and multiple other outlets.

Xu and his representatives did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the CBS News investigation, according to the International Business Times UK. Patriot Conceptions declined to be interviewed.

An Industry With No Rulebook

CBS News interviewed 32 surrogates over its yearlong investigation and found a pattern: no federal agency tracks surrogacy births in the United States, and no law limits how many surrogates one intended parent can hire at the same time.

Attorney Melissa Brisman, who has represented both surrogates and intended parents, told CBS News that arrangement is entirely legal under current law. New York is the only state that requires surrogacy agencies to be licensed, according to the International Business Times UK and Ground News.

American Greatness reported that surrogates in the CBS News investigation described compensation well below the six-figure sums often advertised, closer to $45,000 for single births and under $70,000 for twins. Some said they were pressured by agencies to implant two embryos at once.

A separate California case surfaced in the reporting: Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan, an Arcadia couple, were arrested in May 2025 on suspicion of felony child endangerment after their two-month-old son, born through surrogacy, was hospitalized with head injuries. The couple has denied wrongdoing in court filings, according to Ground News. There is no indication in the available reporting that this case is connected to Xu Bo.

The Citizenship Fight in Washington

Because children born on U.S. soil are automatically U.S. citizens, the Xu Bo story landed directly in the middle of the ongoing political fight over birthright citizenship.

Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rick Scott (R-FL) sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi in February asking for a probe into Chinese-run surrogacy agencies, citing at least 107 such companies operating in California alone, according to Breitbart. No investigation has been publicly confirmed in response to that letter.

The Department of Justice has said that "actors seeking to exploit loopholes to obtain automatic citizenship for their children pose a national security threat and will be brought to justice," the Daily Caller reported, though no charges tied to Xu Bo have been announced.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reacted to the reports by writing that the situation shows the absurdity of treating birthright citizenship as unconditional. Florida lawmakers have moved to restrict surrogacy arrangements involving citizens of countries the state deems "countries of concern," including China, according to the Daily Wire.

Here the coverage diverges. The Daily Wire described the current legal landscape as settled by "the U.S. Supreme Court's June interpretation of the 14th Amendment." Breitbart's own reporting on the same story states that "the Trump administration continues its push to end birthright citizenship," language that only makes sense if the legal fight is still unresolved. Neither of these right-leaning outlets reconciles that contradiction, and no source in this reporting confirms a final Supreme Court ruling that settles the birthright citizenship question. Readers should treat the legal status as contested, not decided.

Separately, a 2014-2022 study cited by the Daily Caller found 59,246 assisted reproductive technology cycles performed in the U.S. for non-residents from 182 countries, with China accounting for 19,718 of them, the single largest share.

What remains unverified is the one number at the center of the entire story: how many children Xu Bo actually has. Xu says 12. His former partner says 300. CBS News and the Wall Street Journal both landed closer to 100 or slightly above. No court, agency, or government record in the current reporting settles which figure is accurate.