A U.S. surrogate matched to Chinese billionaire Xu Bo said she trusted her agency to protect her, even as that firm’s CEO lost his Hoover Institution fellowship and faced questions about military claims and client screening.
The woman, identified only as Judy by CBS News, is carrying a child arranged through California-based Patriot Conceptions. Documents obtained by whistleblowers and reviewed in a CBS News Sunday Morning investigation showed the intended father was Xu Bo, founder of Guangzhou Duoyi Network.
Judy traveled from her home state to California for an April embryo transfer. She learned the intended parent’s identity the night before the procedure. The agency had described him as a single father looking to expand his family.
She later said she never imagined the scale of the household she was joining.
"You don't think to ask... 'Oh, do they have, like, over 100 babies already?'"
Xu’s company stated in December that he had 12 children born in the United States through surrogates and that the overall number was “only a little over one hundred.” Six months after that statement, Xu posted a photo of young children seated in rows and attached a philosophy message.
The company quoted him saying he believes more children bring more blessings and that he wants his words and actions to benefit the long-term development of the Chinese nation.
Judy, a single mother, said she became a surrogate both for the payment that could improve life for herself and her daughter and because she liked helping build a family. She told CBS she trusted the match process.
"I felt like I trusted this agency to kind of protect surrogates and match them with people with good intentions,"
After the transfer, she said agency staff visited her hotel room with flowers and snacks. Patriot Conceptions later stated that employees encouraged Judy to terminate her contract once public reports about the size of Xu’s family surfaced in December. Judy disputed that account and said the agency never advised her to end the agreement.
In a written response after the Sept. 13 CBS report, the firm said it did not know the wider scale of Xu’s family described in later public reporting. How Patriot Conceptions first agreed to supply a surrogate for Xu remains unclear in the available public record. The company partnered with a global surrogacy agency that represented the intended father. International clients make up 40 percent of Patriot Conceptions’ business, with an emphasis on intended parents from China.
Judy recalled that her first mental image after hearing “single father” was a large, cheerful household.
"'[The] Sound of Music.' Do you know that movie? My immediate first thought, 'Oh, that would be really cute,' like a family of 10 kids,"
Xu is a reclusive video game executive rarely seen in public. His company said overseas media have produced numerous misinterpretations and unfriendly reports about China, and that as a Chinese citizen safeguarding China’s interests he stands on the same side as the Chinese government and avoids interviews with overseas media unless necessary. He did not respond to CBS outreach.
Patriot Conceptions CEO Haotian Bai advertises the agency as veteran-founded. He served in the U.S. Army as a chemical operations specialist from November 2013 to October 2017. Army spokesperson Christopher Surridge confirmed the service details to CBS News.
"He had no deployments and left the Army in the rank of specialist,"
In a 2019 court declaration filed during a dispute with a former business partner, Bai said he served in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan until 2017 and that he had been diagnosed with PTSD. The case was later voluntarily dismissed. Bai co-founded an earlier surrogacy agency in 2018, then founded Patriot Conceptions in 2019.
Bai held a 2024-25 Hoover Institution fellowship focused on veterans’ access to IVF. He applied in 2023. After the CBS investigation drew wider attention, the Hoover Institution cut ties with him last week and posted a statement on its website.
"He is no longer affiliated with the Hoover Institution,"
The institution added a direct assessment of his disclosures.
"In light of recent media reports, it is clear that Mr. Bai misled the Institution on the nature of his businesses."
Hoover said it would conduct a full internal review of the application process for the Veteran Fellowship Program.
Bai answered in writing. He said he went through “a normal application process as a U.S. Army veteran for a Hoover Institution fellowship in 2023 and was selected through what appeared to be their usual channels and protocols to be a fellow.” He also stated there was “no point at which Mr Bai 'misled' the Hoover Institution about his research or his intentions.” Patriot Conceptions declined an on-camera interview. Bai asked CBS whether Judy’s records had been offered for sale on the dark web; no public confirmation of any such offer has been released.
Commercial surrogacy is widely legal across much of the United States, yet the Judy-Xu match shows how little a surrogate may learn before an embryo transfer. Judy said the agency told her the intended parent was a single father looking to expand a family. She learned the specific identity only the night before the California procedure.
Authorities have not publicly confirmed any criminal charges, civil findings, or regulatory actions against Patriot Conceptions, Bai, or Xu in connection with these reports. No injuries or arrests are described in the public account. The procedural questions now sit with private institutions and the parties themselves.
Hoover must complete its internal review of how fellowship applicants describe their businesses. The Army has already placed Bai’s service record on the public record: chemical operations specialist, no deployments, exit rank of specialist. Patriot Conceptions must explain, with more than a general denial, how it screens foreign intended parents when international work is 40 percent of its book.
Judy remains the human center of the file. She sought payment and a chance to help build a family. She believed the agency’s role of protection. After public reports on Xu’s household size appeared in December, the agency and the surrogate gave conflicting accounts of whether termination was urged. Investigators and any future fact-finders will need to determine what the agency knew, when it knew it, and what disclosures were made to the woman carrying the child.
Xu’s company has put its own numbers on the record: 12 children born in the United States via surrogates and a total a little over one hundred. Precise counts of how many of those arrangements ran through Patriot Conceptions have not been released publicly. The identity of the global agency that partnered with the California firm for the Xu match also has not been named in the reporting.
Bai built a brand around veteran status and later secured a Hoover fellowship tied to veterans’ IVF access. The Army’s confirmation undercuts the Afghanistan deployment claim that appeared in his 2019 court declaration. Hoover has now stated outright that he misled the institution on the nature of his businesses and has ended the affiliation.
Judy, still using a pseudonym, voiced the core expectation many conservatives hold for any industry that handles life and contract at the same time: that the professionals running the process will screen for good intentions and will not leave the surrogate guessing about the household she is joining. Her words were plain.
She trusted the agency to protect surrogates. The institutions that lent Bai credibility are now scrubbing their own processes. The gap between marketing and verification is the story that remains.
When elite fellowships, overseas capital, and American surrogacy contracts meet without hard disclosure rules, the people left holding the risk are the ones who cannot afford the surprise.
