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Why international surrogacy is flourishing in China
Women in China are increasingly hiring surrogates overseas, which experts say is to avoid the 'motherhood penalty.'
Chinese nationals are increasingly using foreign surrogates, as surrogacy is illegal in China.
International surrogacy has become a booming industry in China, with multiple agencies making arrangements for would-be parents.
Women are often drawn to surrogacy to avoid the "motherhood penalty" on their bodies and careers.
The Financial Times reported on the growth of international surrogacy in China. Surrogacy is illegal there, and the United States has become a popular destination for hopeful parents.
According to a new study, between 2014 and 2020, nearly one-third of intended parents in the United States are foreign nationals, and 40% of them are Chinese.
Initially, couples in China hiring surrogates largely were struggling with infertility. But there has been a rise in young women who are not infertile using surrogates, preferring surrogacy over giving birth themselves.
Surrogacy allows them to avoid the so-called "motherhood penalty," which is the supposedly negative impact pregnancy will have on their bodies and careers.
“The ‘motherhood penalty’ persists over a long period in China,” Lu Pin, a Chinese women’s rights activist based in New York, told the Financial Times. “The fear is well founded and a product of how the environment works against women in both public and private lives.”
Dr. Xiao Yi, a traditional Chinese medicine doctor who specializes in fertility, likewise said she had seen an increase in patients who were afraid of pregnancy and childbirth.
“Chinese women worry about how it will impact their appearance and whether they can return to their normal weight and womb health,” she said.
Several women told the Financial Times they wanted to become parents, but didn't want to experience pregnancy themselves. “I didn’t want to give birth to a baby. It’s a risk to your body and health and you hear about crazy stories about the side effects for women giving birth,” one woman said.
25-year-old Kitty Sheng said she was worried about the impact pregnancy would have on her appearance, as well as her career and finances.
“If I remain unmarried, I will have to bear all the costs of pregnancy and postpartum recovery myself, and that really isn’t very different from the cost of having a child through surrogacy,” she said, adding, “Whether it’s the fact that my career is in a growth phase, that I care about my appearance, or that I don’t want to get married — those are all considerations for myself."
The population in China has been steadily dropping, despite attempts at correction following decades of the restrictive One Child Policy. As Live Action News previously explained:
Anyone who violated the policy was punished; on the more lenient side, families were merely fined. However, some visibly pregnant women were literally dragged off the streets, their children forcibly aborted.
A cultural preference for sons quickly led to a gender imbalance resulting in millions of missing girls today, as people sought sex-selective abortions if pregnant with girls instead of boys. This imbalance further contributed to an epidemic of human trafficking and the highest suicide rate among women in the world. Still today, the population consists of 104.34 men to every 100 women, according to NPR.
One-fifth of the population is aged 60 or over, and getting older, which is straining the government’s health care and pension systems, leading to desperate attempts to boost fertility rates — like subsidizing IVF.
And as reported by the Financial Times, young adults are wary of becoming pregnant, leading to the explosion of the international fertility industry. Agencies have been created specifically to market American surrogates to Chinese nationals. Their babies will be American citizens, which reportedly adds to the appeal for the hopeful parents (and also creates potential future national security issues for the U.S.).
This is still allowed to continue, despite one surrogacy agency having been deemed a "national security threat" in 2025, the couple behind it having been arrested for child abuse on their 21 children. A Chinese billionaire is also believed to have fathered as many as 300 children through surrogacy.
Surrogacy needs to be banned entirely. The current practices are nothing short of a real-life "Handmaid's Tale."
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
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·Why international surrogacy is flourishing in China
Women in China are increasingly hiring surrogates overseas, which experts say is to avoid the 'motherhood penalty.'
Chinese nationals are increasingly using foreign surrogates, as surrogacy is illegal in China.
International surrogacy has become a booming industry in China, with multiple agencies making arrangements for would-be parents.
Women are often drawn to surrogacy to avoid the "motherhood penalty" on their bodies and careers.
The Financial Times reported on the growth of international surrogacy in China. Surrogacy is illegal there, and the United States has become a popular destination for hopeful parents.
According to a new study, between 2014 and 2020, nearly one-third of intended parents in the United States are foreign nationals, and 40% of them are Chinese.
Initially, couples in China hiring surrogates largely were struggling with infertility. But there has been a rise in young women who are not infertile using surrogates, preferring surrogacy over giving birth themselves.
Surrogacy allows them to avoid the so-called "motherhood penalty," which is the supposedly negative impact pregnancy will have on their bodies and careers.
“The ‘motherhood penalty’ persists over a long period in China,” Lu Pin, a Chinese women’s rights activist based in New York, told the Financial Times. “The fear is well founded and a product of how the environment works against women in both public and private lives.”
Dr. Xiao Yi, a traditional Chinese medicine doctor who specializes in fertility, likewise said she had seen an increase in patients who were afraid of pregnancy and childbirth.
“Chinese women worry about how it will impact their appearance and whether they can return to their normal weight and womb health,” she said.
Several women told the Financial Times they wanted to become parents, but didn't want to experience pregnancy themselves. “I didn’t want to give birth to a baby. It’s a risk to your body and health and you hear about crazy stories about the side effects for women giving birth,” one woman said.
25-year-old Kitty Sheng said she was worried about the impact pregnancy would have on her appearance, as well as her career and finances.
“If I remain unmarried, I will have to bear all the costs of pregnancy and postpartum recovery myself, and that really isn’t very different from the cost of having a child through surrogacy,” she said, adding, “Whether it’s the fact that my career is in a growth phase, that I care about my appearance, or that I don’t want to get married — those are all considerations for myself."
The population in China has been steadily dropping, despite attempts at correction following decades of the restrictive One Child Policy. As Live Action News previously explained:
Anyone who violated the policy was punished; on the more lenient side, families were merely fined. However, some visibly pregnant women were literally dragged off the streets, their children forcibly aborted.
A cultural preference for sons quickly led to a gender imbalance resulting in millions of missing girls today, as people sought sex-selective abortions if pregnant with girls instead of boys. This imbalance further contributed to an epidemic of human trafficking and the highest suicide rate among women in the world. Still today, the population consists of 104.34 men to every 100 women, according to NPR.
One-fifth of the population is aged 60 or over, and getting older, which is straining the government’s health care and pension systems, leading to desperate attempts to boost fertility rates — like subsidizing IVF.
And as reported by the Financial Times, young adults are wary of becoming pregnant, leading to the explosion of the international fertility industry. Agencies have been created specifically to market American surrogates to Chinese nationals. Their babies will be American citizens, which reportedly adds to the appeal for the hopeful parents (and also creates potential future national security issues for the U.S.).
This is still allowed to continue, despite one surrogacy agency having been deemed a "national security threat" in 2025, the couple behind it having been arrested for child abuse on their 21 children. A Chinese billionaire is also believed to have fathered as many as 300 children through surrogacy.
Surrogacy needs to be banned entirely. The current practices are nothing short of a real-life "Handmaid's Tale."
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Newsroom
·International
Bridget Sielicki
·International
Angeline Tan
·Issues
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·Issues
Cassy Cooke
·Investigative
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·International
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