Politics & World / Report
California surrogacy case advances; 21 children were removed last year
BBC reported on October 8 that Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang were arrested in Arcadia, California, and pleaded not guilty in Pasadena. We read the Los Angeles prosecutor’s October 6 release to check charges and timing; allegations have not been established by a verdict.
Both face conspiracy-to-abuse charges and separate accessory and witness-dissuasion counts; Xuan also faces a child-abuse count. The release refers to at least 14 children, elsewhere 15 of 16 children in the home. It does not fully reconcile those counts, so neither is treated as an independently established victim total.
BBC’s 21 children comprises 15 removed from the home and six found elsewhere last year. That is a placement total, not proven abuse victims. The investigation began after a two-month-old was hospitalized with head injuries in May 2025; a search followed in July. The new development is criminal proceedings.
Lawyer Mitchell Krems told BBC the allegations mischaracterized events and his clients were innocent. The prosecutor also states the presumption of innocence. We have not independently reviewed the full complaint or surveillance footage.
Sources and further reading
Edited report
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