22nd August 2026 – (Zhuozhou) An underground surrogacy surgery network operating from a converted factory in Luzhiachang village, Zhuozhou, Hebei, performed about 150 illegal procedures a month before staff fled within twenty minutes of a police tip-off, according to anti-trafficking volunteer Shangguan Zhengyi.
Shangguan said on 20th August on social media that a six-month undercover inquiry had mapped a three-storey plant rebranded as the north’s largest operating suite, where retired doctors and anaesthetists from tier-three hospitals were enlisted for unlawful egg retrieval, embryo culture and transplant work. Incomplete figures he gathered suggested up to seventeen operations on the busiest days; five were scheduled on the morning of 18th August alone.
The building was laid out in zones. The ground floor held a kitchen, dining room and reception area. Thirteen wards on the second floor sheltered women recovering from retrieval or transfer procedures. The third floor housed operating rooms, an embryo laboratory and drug storage, with every window sealed from outside view. Surgery began at 9.00am each day and sometimes ran into the evening. Drivers picked up surrogate mothers and egg sellers at shifting hotels and car washes across Zhuozhou, while clinicians were shuttled separately to keep routes hidden.
Shangguan said the medical core was a retired doctor surnamed Zhao, treated internally as director and paid more than one million yuan a year. People with no nursing qualifications reportedly stood in as ward staff. Not every donor received anaesthesia; screams from those who did not were audible at the edge of the village fields. When one woman haemorrhaged heavily, the group refused hospital care and left Zhao to treat her on site rather than risk exposure.
The same network allegedly defrauded clients by hoarding eggs, swapping blood samples when buyers paid for premium donors, dismissing high-value sellers as failing checks, and discarding eggs from older women while telling them none had been retrieved so they would buy costly replacements. A first raid tip on 15th July let the boss move kit and staff; operations resumed around 5th August. On 20th August, Shangguan reported three planned surgeries to Zhuozhou police, yet personnel had gone before officers arrived, prompting his public question about who had warned them. He also pointed to a parallel site in Dashakan village, suggesting a multi-location chain.
Liang Tao, a City University of Hong Kong criminology doctoral graduate and lecturer at East China University of Political Science and Law, told state media outlet Guoshi Zhongche that illegal surrogacy rings can implicate at least seven criminal offences under mainland law, from unlicensed medical practice and illegal business operation to trafficking, forgery and intentional injury, with penalties up to the death sentence depending on severity.
