A12 China
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SUNDAY, JULY 18, 2010
“We don’t encourage moms to break the law — just to take advantage of it.”
— Robert Zhou, owner of one of China’s most successful consultancies
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Robert Zhou and Daisy Chao began their consultancy for expectant mothers with themselves, when Chao went to the United States to give birth to daughter Fiona, now 4.
Chinese consultancy sells ‘birth tourism’ to expectant mothers
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mon perception of America here is of an empire in economic de- cline, the proliferation of U.S. baby services shows that for many Chinese, a U.S. passport nevertheless remains a powerful lure. The United States is widely seen as more of a meritocracy than China, where getting into a good university or landing a high- paying job often depends on per- sonal connections. “They believe that with U.S. citizenship, their children can have a more fair competitive en- vironment,” Zhou said. There are no solid figures, but dozens of firms advertise “birth tourism” packages online, many of them based in Shanghai, and Zhao said the number has soared in the past five years. But he said that many are fly-by-night opera- tions, unlike his high-quality service. “The customers we serve are
very successful and very affluent,” he said.
‘We are not snakeheads’ Zhou and Chao insist that ev-
erything they do is legal, noting that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, says anyone born on U.S. soil has the right to citizenship. “We don’t encourage moms to break the law — just to take ad- vantage of it,” Zhou said. “It’s like jaywalking. The policeman might fine you, but it doesn’t break the law.” “We are not snakeheads,” he added, using the common term here for Chinese gangsters in- volved in smuggling illegal im- migrants. U.S. officials confirm that it is not a crime to travel to the United States to give birth so that the child can have U.S. citizenship. “You don’t deny someone because you know they’re going to the U.S. to have children,” said a U.S. Em- bassy spokesman in Beijing, who spoke on the condition of ano- nymity, citing embassy rules. The spokesman, who said ex-
pectant mothers typically claim they are going to the United States as tourists, compared the baby consultancies to services that help foreign students apply for American universities: “If you have the money, they give you the service. They tell you how to pre- pare your dossier.” “I’m sure people in Congress would call it a loophole,” the spokesman said. Many anti-immigration activ- ists in the United States agree. Some argue that the 14th Amend- ment — aimed at guaranteeing citizenship rights to freed black slaves — was never meant to pro- vide an instant passport to the children of people who are in the country illegally or who travel there expressly to gain U.S. citi- zenship for their child. The Department of Homeland
Security and the State Depart- ment have no specific regulations regarding pregnant foreign visi- tors, which critics see as an issue. “The problem here is not with
the travel agencies or even the women,” said Mark Krikorian, ex- ecutive director of the Washing- ton-based Center for Immigra- tion Studies. “The real problem is the State Department. The reg- ulations do not permit them to turn pregnant women down.” Krikorian said that it is unclear
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whether or how the 14th Amend- ment could be changed and that in any event, Congress has never seriously addressed the possibil- ity.
Zhou, a former marketing di-
rector, and Chao, a former televi- sion producer in Taiwan, said they have helped between 500 and 600 mothers give birth to American babies in the five years they have been in business. They started with themselves, when Chao went to the United States to give birth to daughter Fiona, now 4.
An affluent clientele
Now, they said, their clients in- clude Chinese doctors, lawyers, business leaders, government of- ficials, well-known media person- alities — most of whom do not want media attention and, Zhao said, would not agree to be inter- viewed.
About 40 percent of their cli- ents come from Shanghai, 30 per- cent from Beijing and the rest from Guangzhou and elsewhere, including Taiwan. Some, the cou- ple said, were giving birth to their second child to skirt China’s one- child policy. Most say they do not intend to live in the United States themselves.
And all are affluent, Zhou and
Chao said. Unlike the poor illegal immigrants from Central Amer- ica who try to cross the border to have their babies in the United States, Zhou said, these Chinese parents fly in on first-class seats. “They also do some shopping,” he said, “so they are contributing to the economy.” The reasons they want U.S. passports for their babies are var- ied, but most come down to two key factors — education and set- ting. “The mainland [China] moms
believe the U.S. has better educa- tional resources,” Zhou said. This year, 10 million students are bat- tling for 6.6 million spots at Chi- nese universities and the chance for a better life. “The competition is too fierce on the mainland,” Zhou said. In their pitch to prospective clients, Zhou and Chao point out that as a U.S. citizen, a child has access to free public education from primary school through high school and that a full educa- tion in the United States can be much cheaper than at the top Chinese private schools and uni- versities. Education was one thing Chris-
tina Chuo had in mind when, late in her pregnancy, she and her husband decided to have their first child in the United States in January and turned to Zhou and Chao for assistance. Chuo, 35, said that her brother and sister both studied in the United States and that “my par- ents paid a huge amount of mon- ey for their education” because they were foreign students. Giv- ing her newborn U.S. citizenship, she said, would “provide one more choice for our baby.” Equally important was the set-
ting. “It’s spacious and with no pollution,” Chuo said. “We thought it would put us in a good mood looking at the nice scenery, the hills and the water.” Chuo said she and her husband
like living in Taiwan and are not interested in migrating to the United States, except, perhaps, when they retire. She said they got their visas by saying their purpose was tourism. But she worries it will not be so easy for others.
“I am afraid in the future, with more people going to U.S., it will be harder to get a visa,” she said.
richburgk@washpost.com
Researcher Wang Juan contributed to this report.
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