ARCADIA, California — Prosecutors say about 32 motion-activated cameras recorded video and audio throughout a 10,287-square-foot mansion in this Los Angeles suburb, a city that has repeatedly surfaced in recent investigations into alleged Chinese government influence, foreign-agent activity and intelligence collection.
They say the couple who lived there directed multiple nannies to physically discipline their many children, some as young as 2 months old. The nannies struck toddlers with shoes and wooden sticks, according to the complaint.
On Tuesday, Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Shasha Zhang, 39, were arraigned in a Pasadena courthouse on felony charges of conspiracy to commit child abuse. Xuan also faces a separate felony count of child abuse. Both were charged as accessories after the fact, accused of helping a nanny, Chunmei Li, avoid arrest. Li fled to China and is wanted on an outstanding warrant. A judge set bail at $20 million for each defendant. The couple pleaded not guilty.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the home as a “house of horrors.” He said the parentage of the surrogate children and the couple’s motive for having so many of them are still under investigation.
The surrogacy operation was reportedly run from the mansion itself.
In 2021, the couple set up Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC and used it to recruit surrogates nationwide, often giving them false information. Surrogates were typically paid $65,000 to $100,000 per child, according to the complaint. Hochman said one surrogate was paid $135,000. The couple have 27 children in total, according to The New Yorker. Zhang told The Wall Street Journal last year: “We never sell our babies.”
The Wall Street Journal placed the Arcadia case in the broader context of Chinese demand for U.S. surrogacy, citing Emory University research showing that 32 percent of U.S. gestational-carrier embryo-transfer cycles between 2014 and 2020 involved international intended parents, 41.7 percent of whom were from China. The Journal noted that some American surrogacy agencies marketing to Chinese clients explicitly promote U.S. citizenship for the newborns as a benefit.
The case has also drawn scrutiny to Xuan’s broader business and property network.
Separate from the Arcadia mansion, a commercial complex he managed in El Monte has been cited in a civil complaint filed by the city. That claim alleges illegal gambling and narcotics activity, describes cash, drugs and firearms recovered during police searches, and links the property to a convicted immigration-fraud ringleader.
Against that backdrop, prosecutors say searches of Xuan’s palatial Arcadia home uncovered signs of extraordinary wealth and a sprawling financial footprint.
In court, a deputy district attorney said detectives found antique sculptures, cash and millions of dollars’ worth of alcohol. Prosecutors also described records tied to 200 bank accounts and 70 corporate accounts, along with multiple real and allegedly fake passports.
Mitchell Krems, Xuan’s lawyer, told reporters that his client had never abused a child. Krems said the case would not draw this kind of attention if “they weren’t Chinese.”
Xuan’s past in China raises questions of its own.
A 2025 investigation by Philip Lenczycki of the Daily Caller News Foundation drew on Chinese state media and government records. It found that Xuan entered the Urumqi Municipal People’s Congress in 1997, and in 2008 he also took a seat in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region People’s Congress.
The Chinese outlet Sina identified him as general secretary of a Xinjiang refrigeration company. The Daily Caller investigation also traced Xuan into the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front system through the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. At its 2017 conference in Urumqi, it listed Xuan as an executive committee member of its Xinjiang branch. Researchers at the Jamestown Foundation have documented how such bodies can operate under a dual “chamber of commerce” identity that obscures their ties to the state.
In California, Xuan’s roles have been publicly announced by chamber organizations themselves.