Chinese couple in the US arrested for child abuse, allegedly watched nannies beat their 21 children through security cameras

Chinese couple allegedly laughed while watching their kids get beaten through security cameras

On Tuesday (6 Oct), a Chinese couple who emigrated to the United States were arrested for child abuse.

They face multiple charges of child abuse, including allegations of laughing while watching the nannies beating their children on security cameras.

Reports said that 16 of their children have been placed into state custody as the case goes to court.

Couple lied to get surrogates to birth their children

The California-based couple had 21 children in their mansion in Arcadia.

Both 66-year-old Guojun Xuan and 39-year-old Silvia Zhang pleaded not guilty to their child abuse charges through the help of a Mandarin interpreter.

To have that many children, the couple had allegedly misled multiple surrogates. One surrogate claimed Zhang claimed to be a single mother struggling to get pregnant.

Investigation into the couple first began in May 2025, when Zhang took one of their 2-month-old babies to the hospital for a head injury.

Hospital staff notified authorities after suspecting that the woman had lied about how the baby received its injuries. A raid of their mansion uncovered damning video evidence of abuse.

Prosecutors described the footage, saying that the couple watched the nannies violently discipline their children through the security feed.

They would even direct the nannies on how to discipline their children. Xuan allegedly laughed while watching his children do the “horse stance”. He was also described as joining in on the physical abuse.

Couple wanted children because of “altruism”

The number of children captured public attention, leading to questions about why the couple wanted so many. According to Xuan’s attorney, the man was motivated by his altruism.

Xuan allegedly wanted to use his money to raise his children to become productive members of society as “the philosophers, the physicians, the researchers and the inventors that help society”.

All 21 children were placed in custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services last year when they were taken from the couple.

It is unclear where they are now. There is also an arrest warrant out for one of the nannies caught on camera abusing the children. She has yet to be arrested.

Also read: Woman abuses 4 of 5 adopted children, gets only 5.1% of S$10.9M assets during couple’s divorce