Rich Chinese hire American surrogate mothers for up to $120000 a child

“I would be surprised if you called me back in four months and that

number hadn’t doubled,” he said. “That’s the level of interest

we’ve seen this year from

China and the very serious conversations we’ve had with people who I

think will be joining us in the next three or four months.”

The agency, which handles about 140 surrogacy cases a year, 65 per cent of

them for clients outside the United States, is opening an office in

California to better serve clients from Asia which has easier flight

connections with the West Coast. Weltman said he hopes to hire a

representative in Shanghai next year.

The increased interest from Chinese parents has created some cultural

tensions.

U.S. agency staff who ask that surrogates and intended parents develop a

personal relationship have been surprised by potential Chinese clients who

treat surrogacy as a strictly commercial transaction.

In China, where surrogacy is illegal, some clients keep the fact that their

baby was born to a surrogate a secret, going so far as to fake a pregnancy,

agents say.

Chinese interest in obtaining U.S. citizenship is not new. The 14th Amendment

to the U.S. constitution gives anyone born in the United States the right to

citizenship.

A growing number of pregnant Chinese women travel to America to obtain U.S.

citizenship for their children by delivering there, often staying in special

homes designed to cater to their needs.

While the numbers are unclear, giving birth in America is now so commonplace

that it was the subject of a hit romantic comedy movie, “Finding Mr

Right”, released in China in March.

Overall, the number of Chinese visitors to the United States nearly doubled in

recent years, from 1 million in 2010 to 1.8 million in 2012, U.S.

immigration statistics show.

Weltman said that prospective Chinese clients almost always want to chose U.S.

citizenship for their babies, while other agencies pointed to a desire to

have children educated in the United States.

Some wealthy Chinese say they want a bolt-hole overseas because they fear they

will be the targets of public or government anger if there were more social

unrest in China. There is also a perception that their wealth will be better

protected in countries with a stronger rule of law.

At least one Chinese agent promotes surrogacy as a cheaper alternative to

America’s EB-5 visa, which requires a minimum investment in a job creating

business of $500,000.

While the basic surrogacy package Chinese agencies offer costs between

$120,000 and $200,000, “if you add in plane tickets and other expenses,

for only $300,000, you get two children and the entire family can emigrate

to the U.S.,” said a Shanghai-based agent.

That cost still means the surrogacy alternative is available only to the

wealthiest Chinese.

Intended parents typically pay the surrogate between $22,000 and $30,000, an

agency fee of about $17,000 to $20,000 and legal fees of up to $13,000. If

egg donation is required, that can cost an additional $15,000 and prenatal

care and delivery fees can run between $9,000 and $16,000.

Indeed, surrogacy in the United States is so expensive that in recent years

hundreds of American parents have reportedly turned to surrogates in India.

Often it is infertility that sends Chinese couples to U.S. surrogacy agencies.

More than 40 million Chinese are now considered infertile, according to the

Chinese Population Association. The incidence of infertility has quadrupled

in the last two decades to 12.5 per cent of people of childbearing age.

Shanghai businessman Tony Jiang and his wife Cherry were among them. They

turned twice to domestic surrogates after struggling and failing to conceive

on their own. Both attempts were unsuccessful, and left them unimpressed

with the impersonal nature of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment in

China.

Jiang researched surrogacy in Thailand, India and Ukraine before settling on

the United States, in part because of its superior health care system.

In December 2010, he and his wife welcomed a daughter, born in California to

an American surrogate he calls “my Amanda”. The same surrogate

later carried twins for the couple.

Friends began to ask him to help them do the same thing and in 2012, he set up

his own agency, DiYi Consulting. He has handled 75 surrogacy cases for

Chinese parents so far.

Agents said that while many of their clients struggle with infertility, a

substantial portion already have one child – some in their teens – and are

looking to have a second outside China’s 1979 family planning policy that

restricts couples, in most cases, to one child.

They count among their clients government officials and employees of

state-owned enterprises, for whom a second child would be a fireable

offence. Members of the Chinese Communist Party would also face disciplinary

action if a second child were reported.

Families who violate the one-child policy face the prospect of forced

abortions, sterilisations and fines, policies that have been most brutally

enforced in poor, rural areas.

Technically, Chinese who deliver their second child overseas still violate

family planning policies, but in practice the government has little way to

enforce this, says Zhong Tao, a Shanghai-based lawyer who has handled

similar cases.

Obtaining a Chinese household registration, which is necessary to enjoy

subsidised health care and enrol for lower tuition as a local student in

state schools, is more complicated, if not impossible for second children.

For children who are foreign citizens, parents must apply for visas and

residence permits.

Seeking surrogacy overseas is not in itself illegal, and Chinese surrogacy

agency websites, often adorned with pictures of chubby infants, highlight

the possibility of bespoke babies.

Chinese surrogacy clients typically want to use their own eggs and sperm,

which allows them to have a child who is fully biologically theirs, agents

said.

A growing number, though, are open to egg donation. Often Chinese donors will

seek ethnically Chinese or Asian egg donors, commonly with Ivy League

degrees.

But others want tall, Eurasian children, agents said. “Lots of clients

that are Chinese do use tall blond donors,” said Jennifer Garcia, case

coordinator at Extraordinary Conceptions, a Carlsbad, California-based

agency where 40 per cent of clients are Chinese.

Agents said that clients believe these taller, biracial children will be

smarter and better looking.

Chinese clients also often request boys, a consequence of a cultural

preference for boy children. While sex-selective abortion is illegal –

though still common – in China, gender selection is technically

straightforward through IVF in the United States, where it is used in

surrogacy cases.

Genetic screening also allows intended parents to rule out inherited

conditions. “You can basically make a designer baby nowadays,”

said Garcia.

(Additional reporting by Christine Chan in Singapore; Editing by Alex

Richardson)

Rich Chinese hire American surrogate mothers for up to $120000 a child