Recently, volunteer anti-trafficking activist Shang Guanzheng in mainland China received a tip-off from an informant, claiming that a surrogacy agency was operating underground illegal activities such as egg retrieval and embryo implantation in a villa in a village under the jurisdiction of Changsha City, Hunan Province.
According to reports from the Elephant News, the villa is located in a higher ground area in Yangzichong Village, Ansha Town, Changsha County. After receiving the tip-off, Shang Guanzheng and journalists from Elephant News surveilled near the villa and after several days of observation, confirmed that 4-10 people underwent surgeries there daily.
On the morning of May 12th, after seeing multiple cars transporting several women into the villa, Shang Guanzheng reported the incident to the Changsha County Public Security Bureau and the Changsha Health Commission. When law enforcement officers arrived on the scene, they immediately apprehended the drivers and other related personnel. According to the driver’s confession, they had brought around 11 people to the villa in the morning.
However, when law enforcement officers entered the villa, four to five staff members had already fled, and several individuals involved in surrogacy were hiding in an adjacent vacant villa. Near the villa’s walls in the bushes, pieces of surgical gowns, surgical caps, and other items discarded by fleeing individuals were scattered around.
Inside the villa, there were laboratories, operating rooms, and hospital rooms. In one operating room, a woman lay on the surgery table still under anesthesia, while the personnel who were performing the surgery were nowhere to be found. There were 16 hospital beds in the ward, with 9 women lying on them. Upon inquiry, it was revealed that there were “egg donors” and “surrogate mothers” among them.
One woman involved in surrogacy told reporters that she came from Guizhou for embryo implantation and had just arrived around noon without undergoing the procedure yet. She had been paid 160,000 yuan for surrogacy services.
There were also some women who had undergone egg retrieval but were too weak to walk. Among them was a deaf-mute person who had undergone embryo implantation surgery here, communicating through sign language that she had received 280,000 yuan, while another woman from Sichuan claimed to have received 190,000 yuan. Subsequently, law enforcement officers arranged for ambulances to transport them away for medical treatment and care.
Furthermore, there was a large amount of medication and medical equipment on-site. A notebook on the work desk clearly documented the ages of surrogates who had undergone embryo implantation here, whether they had previous procedures, and details about their uterine cavity and endometrium.
In March of this year, Shang Guanzheng also reported two companies in Guangzhou to the Guangzhou Health Commission for allegedly conducting illegal surrogacy services.
In recent years, the underground surrogacy market in China has rapidly expanded. Through investigations by mainland Chinese media, it was found that connecting intermediaries in surrogacy agencies, clients, surrogate mothers, doctors providing surrogacy services, and hospitals issuing birth certificates have collectively facilitated a massive underground surrogacy grey industry chain.