BURYING THE STORY: Nets Dance Around Obvious Chinese Birthright Farm

Jorge Bonilla
October 7th, 2026 1:03 AM

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One of the consensus A-block items on the Elitise Media evening news was a disturbing story out of California, wherein a couple was arrested on child abuse charges involving their many surrogate children. While they reported the underlying facts of the arrests, they blanked on the obvious story staring them in the face. 

The only newscast to come close was NBC Nightly News:

 

 

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS

10/6/26

6:43 PM

TOM LLAMAS: In California, a couple is being accused of having at least 14 children through surrogacy. They've been arrested tonight on child abuse charges. Dana Griffin has more.

DANA GRIFFIN: Tonight, this couple arrested from this massive mansion outside L.A. following a shocking surrogacy scheme and child abuse investigation.

NATHAN HOCHMAN: This house could only be described as a house of horrors.

GRIFFIN: 66-year-old (Guo)Jon Xuan and 39-year-old Silvia Zhang used surrogates to have at least 14 kids according to authorities. These photos from inside the home show rows of children seated in what investigators called learning centers. This photo shows a nanny allegedly about to strike one of the children. Investigators say nanny Chunmei Li is on the run. The couple, now facing charges of conspiracy to commit child abuse. Their bail set at $100 million. One surrogate says she thought she was carrying a baby for a couple struggling to have a child, only to find out later she was one of many women carrying a child for them.

KAYLA ELLIOTT: You just don't expect that you're going to hand the baby over to their parents, and then all of a sudden find out that there was abuse and neglect going on.

GRIFFIN: The investigation began in May of last year after police were tipped off by medical staff when the couple's two-month-old son, Walter, showed up to the hospital with this injury to his head. The parent said he fell off a bed, according to authorities. Did your client abuse these kids?

ATTORNEY FOR XUAN: No. My client did not abuse these kids.

GRIFFIN: Xuan’s attorney telling me his client, a real estate businessman from China, simply chose to have as many kids as he wants. Dana Griffin, NBC News.

That last line is the whole ballgame, one that none of the evening newscasts seemed to have any interest in. ABC and CBS also ran stories on the child abuse arrests, none went into potentially exploring Xuan’s motivation in having so many kids to begin with. 

The media tiptoed around this obvious Chinese birthright citizenship farm as if they were traversing a minefield. Did no one see the very obvious red flag- 21 kids, born by surrogates, living in a giant mansion and instructed by nannies? Shockingly, NBC’s Dana Griffin seems to be the only one to ask that question.

ABC’s World News Tonight reported the story as a straight crime story, not even mentioning that the parents are Chinese nationals:

 

 

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT10/6/26

6:41 PM

DAVID MUIR: In California tonight, the parents of 21 children are now under arrest. What was allegedly discovered in their home. And authorities say the couple had the children using surrogates from across the country. Here's Kayna Whitworth.

KAYNA WHITWORTH: Tonight, the parents of 21 children, most of them born by surrogacy, are under arrest in Southern California for multiple counts of alleged child abuse.

NATHAN HOCHMAN: This house could only be described as a house of horrors for these- these young, incredibly young children.

WHITWORTH: Exclusive video from our station KABC showing that arrest. FBI and police flooding their mansion. A criminal complaint alleging 38-year-old Sylvia Zhang and 65-year-old Guojun Xuan lied to recruit prospective surrogates from across the United States to carry and give birth to children for them. That couple, parents to at least 21 children. Their mansion divided into learning rooms with approximately 32 motion-activated cameras where nannies allegedly abused the children daily at the couple's direction.

HOCHMAN: Defendant Xuan entered one of the learning centers while a nanny was striking a child and instructed the nanny to strike the child harder.

WHITWORTH: Police say this image shows a nanny yelling at one of the children. Officers initially called to the home in May of 2025 to investigate a suspected case of child abuse involving a two month old baby with a head injury. Authorities then making that shocking discovery, finding more than a dozen children under the age of 13 inside at the time. And David, authorities just finished searching the house there behind me. Lawyers for the father say he's innocent. They placed the blame squarely on a nanny, who authorities say is on the run, while both parents are being held on $20 million bond each. David.

MUIR: Kayna Whitworth with us tonight. Thank you, Kayna.

Here again is a classic case of burying a story because it is politically inconvenient. There were words spoken and facts reported, but no effort to explain 21 children via surrogacy- or anything else, really. 

The CBS Evening News did a better job of making these disclosures up front, right in Tony Dokoupil’s introduction.

 

 

CBS EVENING NEWS

10/6/26

6:31 PM

TONY DOKOUPIL: And good evening. Great to have you with us on a Tuesday night. We begin with a troubling story out of California. The arrest of a Chinese-born couple discovered to have 21 kids inside this castle-like mansion near Los Angeles. And now accused of what the district attorney calls horrific punishment and beatings and child abuse. The kids, almost all born via the largely unregulated world of surrogacy, are now in protective custody, and the couple, which was the subject of a CBS news investigation just last month, is being held on a $100 million bond. Our Jonathan Vigliotti has our full report.

JONATHAN VIGLIOTTI: Prosecutors call it a house of horrors, a sprawling California home just east of Los Angeles where they say at least 14 children, born through surrogacy, were subjected to repeated abuse. Police today arrested 39-year-old Silvia Zhang and 66-year-old Goujun Xuan.

ROBERT LUNA: The investigation revealed that the children were being physically abused by Xuan and live-in nannies, which was encouraged by suspects Xuan and Zhang.

VIGLIOTTI: The case began in May 2025, after Zhang brought a 2-month-old baby to a hospital with severe head injuries.

LUNA: She appeared to be untruthful with hospital staff about how the injury was sustained, and the hospital staff notified law enforcement authorities.

VIGLIOTTI: Police then searched the couple's sprawling Arcadia home and found children ranging from two months to over four years old. Authorities say surveillance video showed children being physically abused by nannies inside the home. As part of a CBS News investigation, a neighbor told "Sunday Morning" she witnessed abuse and called police four times.

NEIGHBOR: You saw her yelling and then she was holding the baby because the baby was screaming and she was just shaking it. She was just shaking, shaking, shaking the baby.

VIGLIOTTI: The couple was initially arrested last year, but released while authorities continued investigating. And Xuan's attorney says his client is innocent. He is blaming the abuse on a nanny. The couple tonight are each being held on a $20 million bond, Tony.

DOKOUPIL: Jonathan, thank you very much.

Dokoupil’s sound framing notwithstanding, there is no further exploration of the potential Birthright Citizenship mill. The story ends, as do the others (NBC to a lesser extent) with that question simply left hanging in the air.

It wasn’t that long ago that the networks caterwauled when President Trump signed an executive order going after birthright citizenship, and instinctively hailed the recent Supreme Court ruling against the executive order as a “defeat” for Trump. Now they look the other way at an obvious abuse that justifies the executive order to begin with. Another reminder that the most insidious bias of all is bias by omission.

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