Pregnant Chinese women have turned a tropical paradise into a maternity ward — pumping out babies who automatically become US citizens daily.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a US territory northeast of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, has been flooded with so-called “birth tourists” since 2009 when then-president Barack Obama introduced a visa-waiver program for Chinese nationals.
China-watchers estimate about 1,000 companies offer birth tourism to the Northern Mariana Islands, other US overseas territories and even the US mainland. They claim a gob-smacking 1.5 million American babies are being raised in China by Chinese parents who’ve participated in birth tourism.
In a March 9 letter to three Trump Cabinet secretaries, Republican lawmakers demanded an accounting on Chinese birth tourism.
“The concern is about these children born to Chinese parents — do the parents have connections to the Chinese Communist Party, which is an adversarial government to the US?” Chris Chmielenski, president of the nonprofit Immigration Accountability Project, told The Post regarding the letter.
“They know there is an industry out there that makes gobs of money to specialize in birth tourism but there is no report from the federal government telling you how many people have been born as a result of this,” he added.
A good chunk of those kids will reach voting age this decade. At age 21 they will be eligible to petition for green cards for parents and siblings, who can then bring along other family members to live in the US.
“It’s not just the voting aspect, it’s the chain migration laws,” said Chmielenski. “If their family could afford the prices charged for this birth tourism scheme, there’s a good chance they can afford a residence in the US. That raises concerns. Most wealthy Chinese nationals tend to have connections to the government there.”
Chain migration refers to the legal process which allows US citizens and lawful residents to sponsor relatives for green cards. According to Migration Policy Institute data, 77 percent of new green card holders in 2024 came in through chain migration.
In the letter sent to outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and 34 other GOP members demanded federal data on the scope of the problem and called out the US’s “absurd birthright citizenship policies and the resulting birth tourism industry,” saying it was an “alarming” exploitation and flagging an army of potential future voters raised in “hostile nation” China with no “allegiance to the United States.”
Dr. Geoffrey Fraiche, head of the OB/GYN department at the only hospital in Saipan, the country’s capital, called fears of espionage and subversion “silly.”
“I never get good answers when I ask the mothers why they’re doing this,” he told The Post from his home in Saipan. “But it’s a status symbol for many of the moms. They want their children to go to American universities.”
He said American citizenship is so prized by the class-climbing parents some have risked the life of their unborn child for it.
Once after performing the ultrasound for a “wealthy” couple’s baby, Fraiche noticed an anomaly and became concerned.
“I tried to encourage them to leave the island because we have limited resources to address high risk anomalous babies but they ended up having their baby here,” he said.
“They were able to get an air ambulance to fly into Saipan, pick up the mom and the baby and fly back to China. That was extremely surprising. The baby would not have survived if they stayed here.”
In 2009 Obama decreed Chinese nationals could stay up to 45 days in CNMI without a visa. The move was billed as an economic stimulator as the country’s economy is 72 percent tourism.
Fraiche said it was ultimately a good thing for the local economy, which has slumped in recent years, and for the hospital itself since the moms-to-be pay cash for healthcare without any of the discounts afforded to US citizens.
But companies from communist China have capitalized on the remote island Yankee factory — offering expectant mommies a luxury experience.
“Create beautiful memories while having an American baby,” the homepage of Global Baby 8, a Shanghai-based birth tourism company, reads.
“Economy” packages begin at $14,000 and provide mom with a basic apartment.
Global Baby 8’s “Supreme Type” package — starting at $45,000 — includes a luxury detached villa, personalized escort, three shopping and leisure trips per week, a complimentary island tour and a one-on-one postpartum nanny service to help with cooking, cleaning, and child care as well as a one-month birthday party for the newborn.
A hospital birth at the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, the hospital in Saipan, will run an extra $10,000. Moms can chose between vaginal birth or, for an extra fee, cesarean section. The birthing brokers will also handle Junior’s US citizenship papers for an extra $1,000.
Another company, China Mifubaby Group with offices in California, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, offers services catering to Korean and Japanese moms-to-be. The site, which greats visitors with a giant pregnant belly imposed over a luxurious resort, advertises “expedited visas,” “American citizenship” and “short direct flight distance.”
Future moms are instructed to contact the group on China’s WeChat social media site with inquires and to book packages. Representatives for both companies did not respond to The Post’s inquiries.
“Our highly experienced visa specialists will craft a customized visa and entry plan just for you, ensuring a worry-free overseas birthing experience!” Global Baby 8’s website boasts, which includes photos of moms walking on the beach, enjoying seafood feasts and laid up in maternity wards.
“The beautiful mom and husband are getting ready to return to China with their baby. Look how sweetly the baby is sleeping,” reads the caption on one photo where dad arrived in a cowboy hat to meet his new Yankee tyke.
Authorities have cracked down on stateside birth tourism schemes in recent years.
In 2019 Dongyuan Li pleaded guilty to running You Win USA Vacation Services, a birth tourism company based in Southern California. He was sentenced to 10 months, forced to forfeit over $1 million in assets along with several Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
Last May, Guojun Xuan — a 65-year-old Chinese businessman with ties to the Chinese Communist Party — was found to have at least 26 children in his $4.1 million Arcadia, Calif. mansion. He and his partner, Silvia Zhang, had used surrogates across the US to carry most of them, found using Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC, which Xuan ran.
The couple were initially arrested but not charged and free on bond. They claim they just wanted to have a large family, although police are still investigating the case and have said they could face charges of child abuse and neglect based on video footage found in their house.
Critics argue birthright citizenship exploits US laws and poses national security risks through chain migration, with particular concern over espionage or other influence operations tied to the Chinese Communist Party.
On the first day of his second term, President Trump signed an executive to deny citizenship to children of mothers unlawfully or temporarily in the US, whose fathers are also not citizens or legal residents, but federal courts blocked the order.
That has kicked the issue of birthright citizenship up to the Supreme Court with oral arguments set to begin April 1.
Notably, Baby New Year in 2025 — the tradition that celebrates the first American born in the new year — was named Melody and had been delivered in Saipan to a 30-year-old Chinese tourist from Shanghai.
Chinese money and corruption has long flooded the tiny island territory of 50,000 people which officially became a US territory in 1986.
Former CNMI Governor Ralph Torres was under FBI investigation for allegedly taking millions from Chinese companies and was impeached in January 2022, but eventually acquitted by the Senate. He continues to face criminal charges but the trial has been delayed.
Current CNMI Gov. David Apatang told The Post he “will be issuing a response to the Congressmen’s letter” but would not provide further details.
In 2015, a Chinese-owned casino in Saipan was hit with a massive $75 million fine after an investigation revealed it had zero anti-money laundering program and failed to report thousands of suspicious transactions.
A few years later, another Chinese-run casino ceased construction after it was found to be using forced labor and had ties to a “mob kingpin.”
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