He was ‘the general’ who barked orders at staff and she was the ‘mastermind’ and manipulator with an explosive temper.
These are the claims from former staff of Guojun Xuan and his girlfriend, Silvia Zhang, the couple accused of running a disturbing surrogacy business scheme in California.
Xuan, 65, and Zhang, 38, were arrested on May 9 on suspicion of child abuse and neglect at their castle-like $4.1 million Arcadia mansion.
Horrifying images, submitted by authorities in court and seen first by the Daily Mail, showed children sitting in lines while nannies and teachers allegedly spanked them and forced them to do squats in a makeshift classroom, according to search warrants.
Xuan and Zhang were taken into custody after a local hospital notified police of a two-month-old boy brought in with traumatic head injuries after he was allegedly shaken by a nanny working for the couple, according to the warrants.
Officers then found 21 surrogate-born children, ranging in age from two months to 13 years, across multiple properties Xuan and Zhang owned in a horrifying case that has sparked headlines worldwide.
Surrogates who were hired by the couple spoke out first – including one who found out the child she gave birth to had been almost immediately placed into foster care.
In multiple interviews with the Daily Mail, some of Xuan and Zhang’s former staff have compared working for them to serving under a military regime.
They claim employees were subjected to constant threats, screams and physical harm.
The couple, who are out of jail on $500,000 bail each, have not been seen publicly since their arrest.
But the Daily Mail recently spotted Xuan at one of his buildings less than 10 miles from the Arcadia mansion.
Xuan and Zhang ran dozens of companies, including their alleged surrogacy business, according to former employees and lawsuits reviewed by the Daily Mail.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Zhang denied selling their babies and said: ‘We take care of them very well.’
Zhang added that their business was inspired by China’s one-child policy and the hurt it caused.
She added that she wanted to have as many babies as possible and claims the criticism leveled at her family is unfair.
‘There’s nothing showing anything I do is human trafficking,’ she told the publication. ‘They can do the investigation. They will find nothing.’
Tina Powers, an employee who sued the couple for unfair business practices and failure to pay minimum wage, told the Daily Mail the working environment was ‘toxic’ and she felt like every move she made was being watched.
‘It was like being in Communist China,’ she said. ‘There were cameras everywhere and you were watched at all times.’
Powers also claimed Xuan and Zhang, who is a licensed real estate agent, would change the names of their shell companies to hide from people they owed money to.
According to records viewed by the Daily Mail, Guojun Xuan and his associates filed for a Limited Liability Company (LLC) for nearly 40 companies in 2021, but only three remain active.
Most of the businesses are listed as real estate management or real estate investment companies.
Forming an LLC may shield the operators’ assets from business debts and protect them from personal liability if the company gets sued.
Despite amassing a real estate empire, former employees who filed lawsuits against Xuan and Zhang claim they were paid below minimum wage.
In a lawsuit filed in December 2023, the employees also alleged they were not allowed to take full breaks, not compensated for overtime and not reimbursed for work expenses.
They also claimed in the suit that they weren’t paid full wages when fired or given access to employment records.
Xuan and Zhang have denied their former employees’ allegations. The case is ongoing.
Powers, who worked for the couple from 2021 to 2022, told the Daily Mail that the couple operated an eviction business and a separate real estate company as well as a surrogacy business.
Other employees and contractors who worked with the couple told the Daily Mail they used intimidation tactics, bragged about their connections to politicians and threatened to sue them if they spoke to authorities.
Members of the tight-knit Chinese community in Arcadia knew Xuan as a community leader.
He regularly went grocery shopping and was active in social groups, according to neighbors.
Xuan was the president of the US-Xinjiang General Chamber of Commerce and an active pro-CCP member in the Southern California Chinese community, according to NTD Television Network.
The Xinjiang Chamber of Commerce is part of a network tied to the CCP’s United Front Work Department, which tries to build Beijing’s influence around the world.
The Daily Mail also discovered that Xuan is connected to other pro-Beijing community leaders and is honorary president of the Chinese American Federation of Southern California.
Xuan and Zhang said they were married, but former employees told the Daily Mail that the senior was dating a younger woman before becoming involved with Zhang in 2021.
Former employees told the Daily Mail that Xuan and Zhang are not married, but had one biological child, a son, together.
In 2022, Zhang divorced a 75-year-old Chinese man, with whom she shares a 10-year-old daughter.
According to search warrants obtained by the Daily Mail, Zhang told detectives she is the biological mother to two children and surrogate mother to the others.
Zhang’s former husband, Hong Ching Henry Tang, claimed she sold their two homes in Pomona, California, without his permission while he was in Taiwan for eye surgery in 2021, according to divorce records obtained by the Daily Mail.
Tang said he was shocked to find he only had no place to go to when he returned to the US.
‘I had intended to reside at the Property for the remainder of my life,’ Tang said in a December 2021 declaration.
He added that the property had rental units that would help supplement his income.
Zhang was already dating Xuan by the time her divorce was finalized. The other woman who also worked for the senior was ‘furious’ when Zhang ‘walked into the picture,’ said Powers.
Powers said the work environment the couple created was ‘pure chaos’ and they ruled with an ‘iron fist’.
Powers said the work environment the couple created was ‘pure chaos’ and they ruled with an ‘iron fist’.
‘The American workers worked on one side, and the Chinese workers did most of the accounting,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘They kept us separated. And [the Chinese employees] would call him ‘general’ and say, ‘Yes, general!’
‘They’d call you in the office and then yell and scream at you and accuse you of taking things,’ she added.
‘They accused one lady of taking their Apple phone when it was lost. They told this poor, scared Chinese woman that they would send her to jail.’
Employees who worked for one of the couple’s real estate companies, Yudao Management Inc., had to sign an agreement promising they would not sue the business and must pay $50,000 if they are terminated and chose to file a lawsuit, according to the company’s handbook obtained by the Daily Mail.
The company handbook also said employees would be fined $10 if they left doors unlocked, kept the lights on or forget to turn off the AC or air purifier after business hours.
Powers also claimed the couple would cut $50 off the pay of employees who were five minutes late.
In 2021, Yudao Management had about 250 properties all over Southern California.
Powers said she oversaw the daily transactions, which included the couple buying homes in foreclosure or at auction and then flipping them.
While Powers and other employees worked at one wing of the Arcadia mansion, the other side of the home was set aside for the couple’s surrogacy business with two to three employees.
According to business records filed with the California State Secretary, Zhang registered a business called Hope Surrogacy LLC. in March 2021 and used a Pomona, California, address of the home she once shared with her former husband.
On May 11, 2021, she registered another company, Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC, using the Arcadia address.
In 2022, Zhang and Xuan moved most of their businesses to a building less than 10 miles away from their home, employees who spoke to the Daily Mail said.
Meanwhile, the couple transformed at least three of the rooms in the Arcadia mansion into makeshift classrooms where nannies were seen yelling and hitting the toddlers, according to detectives who viewed surveillance footage.
One of the children who sustained major injuries was 2-month-old baby Walter, who detectives said suffered injuries consistent with car accidents or babies who have been shaken, according to the warrants.
Arcadia Police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo told the Daily Mail that Zhang was listed as the legal mother on the birth certificates of the 21 children.
When investigators questioned Zhang about the children, she responded that they ‘just want a big family.’
‘To my knowledge the child [baby Walter] is still in the hospital. We have not been notified of his release,’ Cieadlo told the Daily Mail on Wednesday.
Cieadlo added the investigation into the child abuse and neglect allegations against the couple is ongoing.
After hearing about the couple’s May arrest, Kayla Elliott, a 27-year-old surrogate from Texas, came forward and said she was matched with Zhang and Xuan through Mark Surrogacy.
Elliott told KTLA she gave birth to a baby on March 13 after a successful embryo transfer via IVF. The 27-year-old even took a picture with Zhang after she gave birth.
An emotional Elliott, still resting on a hospital bed just hours after giving birth, smiled as Zhang wrapped her arms around her in a hug.
Two months later, Elliott found out the child she carried was placed into foster care.
In an interview with Center for Bio Ethics and Culture, Elliot revealed Zhang handed her $2,000, while the real estate agent handed $200 to Elliott’s mother, boyfriend and their son and daughter.
Elliot claims Zhang was unemotional and ‘wasn’t holding the baby’.
‘The baby was wrapped in a bassinet… you would think that somebody that wanted a baby so bad would be holding onto that baby and loving that baby and just in awe with that baby.’
Zhang declined the Daily Mail’s request for comment on the allegations concerning the surrogacy and her May arrest.
She also refused to comment on the various lawsuits filed by former employees and the allegations from contractors.
Mark Surrogacy filed documents with the state to terminate its corporation on June 13, according to records viewed by the Daily Mail.
Another company called Future Spring Surrogacy was registered with the state on July 11, 2024, using an address where Zhang and Xuan ran some of their companies.
That company filed to terminate its corporation on May 15, less than a week after Zhang and Xuan’s arrest.
When reached by the Daily Mail, FBI officials would neither confirm nor deny whether they are investigating the couple.