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Haotian Bai, a former fellow of Stanford’s Hoover Institution, founded a surrogacy company geared towards providing U.S. citizenship to the children of Chinese elites and helped organize a Chinese internship program in Hawaii that a former state lawmaker later said he reported to the FBI over counterintelligence concerns.
Bai is the founder of Patriot Conceptions. His company was used by wealthy Chinese elites to implant their embryos into American women so their children could be born as U.S. citizens, according to a New York Post investigation.
In a now-deleted article published on the Hoover Institution's website, Bai described Patriot Conceptions as an advocacy and resource hub for military families struggling with fertility. The article failed to mention Bai’s extensive business interest with Chinese nationals. Instead, Bai wrote that Patriot Conceptions offered links and resources for military families seeking surrogacy.
Later in 2025, Bai stated that 40% of Patriot Conceptions' clients were “international”, and a New York Post investigation found that “the company’s promotional materials suggest those international clients are almost entirely from China.” As reported by the NYPost, 2019 court filings state that “the company’s financials were all run out of China.”
Last week, a Patriot Conceptions surrogate identified as “Judy” came forward when she discovered she was carrying the child of reclusive Chinese billionaire Xu Bo. Bo has allegedly sired as many as 300 children, a number of whom gained U.S. citizenship via U.S. based surrogacy.
The Hoover Institution’s now-deleted description of Bai read:
“Patriot Conceptions, Bai’s first venture, has dramatically transformed the third-party reproduction industry. It offers a comprehensive platform that facilitates connections between intended parents and surrogates and egg donors. Under Bai’s leadership, the company has developed a national network offering specialized services, significantly aiding hundreds of families in realizing their dreams of parenthood. A distinctive aspect of Patriot Conceptions is its commitment to military families, providing special discounts to service members and veterans, reflecting Bai’s continuous dedication to supporting his fellow servicemen and -women…Through these initiatives, Bai exemplifies a unique blend of patriotism, hard work, and technological insight, making significant impacts in each sector he touches.”
Recently, Hoover released a statement retracting their former stance:
“Haotian Bai's Veteran Fellow status ended at the Institution in October of 2025 after completing his non-resident, one-year fellowship where he focused on U.S. Veteran access to IVF through TRICARE. He is no longer affiliated with the Hoover Institution. In light of recent media reports, it is clear that Mr. Bai misled the Institution on the nature of his businesses. A full internal review of the application process to the Veteran Fellowship Program will be conducted by institutional leadership, and necessary changes will be implemented immediately.”
This is not Bai’s first controversy. In 2018, Bai, acting as a “Hawaiian realtor,” was hired by Chinese firms to help organize a special internship program for Chinese students within the Hawaiian state legislature.
In interviews conducted by the New York Post, Hawaii House of Representatives member Matthew LoPresti stated that at the time his office was working very closely with Hawaii’s missile defense program and with the FBI on counterintelligence, Bai’s interns started to appear. Confused and concerned by their sudden arrival, he reported the situation to the FBI.
The internship program was ultimately shut down due to concerns about foreign espionage and mistreatment of interns. Bai faced no charges nor was he investigated.
Further investigation by the Review found that the internship program was organized by the company Huanmei Yide (Beijing) International Education Technology Co., Ltd, which was founded by Li Chenqi, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member and People's Liberation Army (PLA) military officer. Li, the founder of the internship, served in the PLA’s Strategic Support Force (SSF) during the duration of the internships. According to the U.S. Deparment of Defense and RAND the SSF is an intelligence unit, "centralising the collection and management of technical intelligence; providing strategic intelligence."
Moreover, while completing his masters as an international student, Bai was a board member of a CCP united front-linked association, the Chinese Association of Iowa. (The association gave its top annual award to the PRC Consul General in Chicago during Bai's board term.)
Dr. Jacqueline Deal, founder of defense research firm Long Term Strategy Group wrote, "Bai's firm Patriot Conceptions is also a top donor ($20k-$50k by June 2024) to a CCP-linked non-profit, the Yue-Sai Kan One World Foundation. Chinese sources describe the founder, Yue-Sai Kan, as an "honorary president" of a Shanghai united front body and "overseas Chinese leader," who frequently liaises with senior CCP and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (United Front Work Department) personnel on visits to the PRC."
Six years after the internship program was shut down, the Hoover Institution invited Bai to join its Veteran Fellowship Program.
Revelations that Bai’s firm supports Chinese surrogacy in the U.S. highlights increasing concerns that surrogacy could be abused by the CCP to use its citizens' U.S. citizenship for covert activities in the United States.
Bai's internship program’s ties to a Chinese company founded by a PLA officer, together with a Hawaii lawmaker’s decision to alert the FBI to counterintelligence concerns about the program, raise questions about the due diligence conducted before Bai’s affiliation with Hoover. It remains unclear who at the Hoover Institution invited Bai or what steps were taken to investigate his background before his appointment. underscore the need for both Hoover and Stanford to strengthen their monitoring of potential threats posed by Chinese state actors.
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Editor’s Note: September 29, 2026: Following publication of this article, counsel for Patriot Conceptions and Haotian Bai sent The Stanford Review a letter disputing several statements and requesting corrections and a retraction. Among other things, Patriot Conceptions states that the company was not founded or designed to obtain U.S. citizenship for its clients; that it coordinated only one gestational-carrier case involving Xu Bo and had no involvement in his other alleged surrogacy arrangements; that Bai has never been affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party or People’s Liberation Army; and that the Senate letter cited in this article does not identify Patriot Conceptions.
The Review has revised several passages to distinguish more precisely between documented facts and allegations or concerns attributed to third parties. The article now attributes the Hawaii counterintelligence concerns directly to former state Rep. Matthew LoPresti; no longer characterizes Patriot Conceptions’ military-family programs as falsely described; qualifies reporting concerning Xu Bo’s alleged children and their citizenship; and distinguishes evidence concerning the PLA service of Li Chenqi, the founder of a Chinese company involved in the internship program, from any allegation that Bai himself served in or represented the PLA.
The article has also been updated with additional reporting developed after its initial publication. The Review identified Huanmei Yide (Beijing) International Education Technology Co., Ltd. as a company involved in the internship program and added reporting concerning its founder, Li Chenqi, and his service in the PLA’s Strategic Support Force. The article also adds reporting concerning Bai’s former role with the Chinese Association of Iowa and other organizational and business relationships described above.
Patriot Conceptions and Bai dispute the implication that either has ties to the PLA, CCP, or Chinese espionage activities. The Review has included their position and will continue to correct or clarify factual statements if additional evidence warrants doing so.
