First arrests came in May 2025 after infant sustained head injury
Police said Tuesday that Silvia Zhang and her husband, Guojun Xuan, of Arcadia, California, have been arrested on child abuse charges following an investigation into a surrogacy scheme involving at least 21 children.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the couple is expected to face conspiracy to commit child abuse charges. Fifteen children, ranging in age from two months to 13 years with most between one and three, were removed from the couple’s Arcadia home last year after an allegation of abuse, and another six children living elsewhere were subsequently identified.
Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children while the rest were born by surrogate.
Zhang and Xuan were first arrested in May 2025 after a hospital reported that their two-month-old infant had suffered a traumatic head injury that Arcadia police attributed to a nanny at the home violently shaking the baby. Arcadia police did not file charges at the time, saying they wanted to finish a full investigation first.
The couple told police they “wanted a large family” and produced what appeared to be legitimate birth certificates, including some from outside California, that list Zhang as the mother of the children. Xuan was listed as the father on at least some of the documents.
Surrogacy is an agreement between parties to have a woman become pregnant, typically through an embryo transfer and deliver a baby for another parent. California is considered a “surrogacy-friendly state” because it has clear laws governing the process. Both sides are required to have lawyers, and a written, notarized contract must be in place before an embryo transfer takes place. The practice has no federal regulation, leaving each state to set the rules if it chooses to allow it.