Authorities in central China’s Hunan province have broken up two illegal surrogacy agencies in Changsha, the provincial capital, fining administrators and medical staff nearly 178 million yuan ($25 million) and penalizing 18 people.

The surrogacy rings were discovered in May after authorities received a tip from a well-known anti-trafficking activist about suspicious activity in a rented house, prompting a joint investigation comprising police and local government officials.

Surrogacy in any form has been strictly prohibited under Chinese law since 2001, and the bust marks one of the most significant cases relating to the underground fertility industry in recent years.

On Saturday, officials announced that among the 18 individuals penalized, six “organizers” were fined a total of 158 million yuan. Several medical staff were also sanctioned, including two licensed doctors who were suspended from practicing for one year.

When authorities raided one of the agencies, located in a rented house, on May 12, they found nine women inside — including egg donors and surrogate mothers. The house had been converted into a full-scale medical facility, equipped with an operating room, laboratory, 16 hospital-style beds, and large stocks of medication. Windows were covered with blue film to block any view from outside.

Videos posted by domestic media from the raid at the second agency also showed staff fleeing after spotting law enforcement, as well as an unconscious woman on an operating table.

Local media reported that an anti-trafficking activist, known only by the online handle Shangguan Zhengyi, first raised alarms after observing women being driven in and out of the rented house over multiple days. He later told authorities the site appeared to be carrying out illegal egg retrievals and embryo transfers on up to 10 women a day, findings he also posted on the microblogging platform Weibo.

Daxiang News confirmed his claims via on-site footage showing vehicles, some unlicensed, ferrying women to the house, where they were required to change into slippers — a precaution Shangguan Zhengyi suggested was meant to stop them from hiding tracking devices in their shoes. Some women appeared to have undergone medical procedures before being driven away, he added.

Among those found inside during the raids in May was a deaf woman who later told Shangguan in sign language that she had been promised 280,000 yuan to undergo an embryo transfer. Another woman told investigators she received 190,000 yuan and that she underwent the procedure without anesthesia.

Despite a nationwide ban for more than two decades, surrogacy in China remains controversial. With the national birth rate at a historic low, demand, and gaps in enforcement, have fueled a black market that surfaces in frequent scandals every year, sparking public outrage.

Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.

(Header image: A view of the operating room at the rented house in Changsha, Hunan province, May 12, 2025. From @上官正义 on Weibo）