Transnational surrogacy in China

In modern Chinese society, the birth of a child is one of the marriage goals, which is strongly encouraged and supported by both society and the state. In a situation where the birth of a child is impossible for medical reasons (infertility), the achievement of the designated goal in the form of the birth of a child and the emergence of child-parent legal relations becomes extremely difficult. The second half of the twentieth century was marked by the rapid development of new technologies in the field of biomedicine in the reproduction field, allowing to overcome infertility. One of the biggest breakthroughs is surrogacy, and it is also the most controversial topic in terms of morality, religion, and law. In China, due to the liberalization of childbearing policies, more and more infertile couples are resorting to surrogacy, which currently operates in the gray market due to insufficient legal regulation at the national level. Different approaches to surrogacy in different countries and the development of the modern communications industry have led to the growth of cross-border surrogacy worldwide. Even in China itself, there are different provisions on surrogacy under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy. The article discusses and analyzes in detail the issues of jurisdiction, the recognition of parental relations and foreign public documents, the citizenship of surrogate children, some specific cases, such as transnational surrogacy for same-sex partners and transnational surrogacy without the consent of the intended parents.