The Hoover Institution has launched an internal review into whether Haotian Bai, a 37-year-old U.S. Army veteran and founder of the California-based surrogacy agency Patriot Conceptions, misled the think tank about the nature of his business while he held a fellowship there. The investigation, first reported by The Stanford Review and confirmed on the Hoover Institution’s website, comes after a series of media reports detailed how Bai’s company catered to wealthy Chinese nationals seeking American-born children.
According to the updated author page on Hoover’s site, the institution now says Bai is “no longer affiliated” with it and that a “full internal review of the application process to the Veteran Fellowship Program will be conducted by institutional leadership.” The statement added: “It is clear that Mr. Bai misled the Institution on the nature of his businesses.”
Bai’s fellowship had focused on veteran access to IVF through military healthcare. A spokesman for Bai, Kate Gardiner, strongly denied the allegation. “There was no point at which Mr. Bai ‘misled’ the Hoover Institution about his research or his intentions,” she said, noting that he went through a “normal application process in 2023.”
Gardiner pointed to Hoover’s own prior description of Bai, which she said characterized Patriot Conceptions as a commercial surrogacy business. “Nothing about the nature of its business changed during Mr. Bai’s fellowship,” she said, adding that his research on reproductive care for Tricare users “continues to be part of Patriot’s business model.”
The controversy erupted after a California surrogate identified as “Judy” told CBS News she discovered she was carrying a child for Chinese billionaire Xu Bo, who has reportedly fathered more than 100 children through surrogacy arrangements. Judy said Patriot Conceptions had told her the intended parent was a single father hoping to expand his family. The New York Post subsequently described the firm as a “baby factory” for Chinese nationals seeking American kids.
Denials and Legal Pushback
Gardiner dismissed the reports as containing “significant factual inaccuracies and misleading implications.” She said Patriot Conceptions is a “California-based family-building agency” serving a diverse clientele, including military families and international parents. Regarding Xu Bo, she stated the agency “has only one active surrogacy journey involving Xu Bo” and was not aware of other arrangements when it engaged with him.
“In every agency-coordinated journey, the parties are represented by separate legal counsel,” Gardiner said. “Patriot Conceptions does not make legal decisions for either party and does not compel any party to accept a match or contractual terms.”
The company is now “working with legal and communications counsel to request corrections in a number of wildly inaccurate articles,” she added, and is reviewing “additional safeguards to help agencies like ours identify undisclosed simultaneous arrangements involving unrelated providers.”
Bai has also faced scrutiny over a prior program he helped arrange for Chinese students to intern in the Hawaii state legislature. Hawaii News Now reported that the program was shut down over allegations the students were exploited and poorly treated. Former Hawaii state Rep. Matthew LoPresti, a Democrat, told the New York Post he grew concerned when Chinese students began appearing in his office in 2018 without his request, especially given his office’s involvement in sensitive military and intelligence matters. “There was something suspicious about it,” LoPresti said. “I brought it to the FBI’s attention.” Bai denied that students were exploited and that he ever sold the internship, and he did not face charges.
The scrutiny of Patriot Conceptions arrives as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on birthright citizenship and birth tourism. In June, the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s first attempt to end birthright citizenship. In August, Trump signed executive orders targeting birth tourism and certain surrogacy arrangements, though a federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked one of the orders earlier this month. Gardiner denied that Patriot Conceptions provides “immigration, citizenship-planning, or nationality-related services,” saying any legal status question is determined by authorities, not the company.
Patriot Conceptions’ website includes a dedicated page for “international parents,” offering a Chinese translation and communication via WeChat. In a 2024 podcast, Bai said the company was seeing new “opportunities” from foreign “customers.”
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/veteran-behind-surrogacy-firm-cashing-in-on-chinese-elites-faces-probe-by-former-employer