Southern California has cinematic, year-round sunshine – which beats New York, where snow “is not suitable” for traveling pregnant women. A large Chinese community is here to welcome you. And Irvine, the affluent planned community in the heart of Orange County, is a safe urban environment.
If you’re wealthy and Chinese and want to have an American baby, that’s the pitch you’ll hear from the operators of You Win USA Vacation Resort, one of three companies targeted last week by federal and local authorities for what is known as “birth tourism.”
In what appears to be a growing trend, thousands of wealthy Chinese families are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have an American-born baby. Drawing them to the area are some of the same factors that have made Southern California so attractive to foreign homebuyers.
Dozens of agents raided homes in Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties on Tuesday, taking with them boxes of documents they hope will help build criminal cases against the companies.
The most obvious goal of customers is to give their babies U.S. citizenship, which is bequeathed to anyone born here regardless of their parents’ citizenship.
But the attraction of gaining a foothold in America goes deeper. Many rich Chinese are looking for an insurance policy for their kids against financial and lifestyle risks in the homeland.
“It’s about keeping their options open,” said Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a UC Irvine professor of Chinese history.
Citizenship comes with its own perks, of course: free K-12 education, potential access to great universities, visa-free hassles for travel with many foreign countries, strong medical care, and Social Security upon retirement.
The birth tourism websites also tout benefits for the parents. When a child turns 21, he or she can sponsor parents to the United States. And if the baby is a boy from Taiwan, he doesn’t have to serve in that country’s military.
Images on the Chinese-language website You Win USA drives its pitch home with images such as a pregnant woman pulling a suitcase across a map of the United States. Elsewhere, she is no longer pregnant but carries a baby wrapped in an American flag.
Efforts to reach the three companies for comment were unsuccessful.
China, with 1.39 billion people, is the most populous country in the world. Its economy has slowed recently but is still booming comparatively – its growth of 7.4 percent last year dwarfed 2.4 percent in the U.S.
More than 2 million Chinese are now millionaires, second only to the United States, according to Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm. And Chinese are the largest consumers of luxury goods, according to a 2014 report by consultant Bain & Company.
“China is in this very strange position right now,” Wasserstrom said. “The country is on this incredible roll with the economy growing and greater geopolitical clout in the world. But there also is anxiety that all of this could fall apart.
“So one of the things well-to-do Chinese people would like is to have alternatives. For their children, at least, have an option if things go badly in China, to come to the U.S. or Hong Kong.”
Smog is a huge problem in China. Last week, a new documentary, “Under the Dome,” went viral until the Chinese government blocked its Web access on Friday, according to media reports. It features toxic rivers, a child who had never seen a star, and cities that saw more than 100 days (and some more than 200 days) of pollution last year.
The young journalist who researched and narrated the film included her personal concern for the air her child, a baby born with a benign tumor, has to breathe.
At the same time, a report out of Southern California provided a stark contrast. The area, once known as the smog capital of America, has seen such a steep decline in air pollution since the 1990s that for the first time, clean air was linked to bigger and stronger lungs among school-age children.
Hollywood movies and television shows that are popular in China portray California as a place of healthy lifestyles.
“The allure of America we often think is associated with things like democracy and free speech, which are things that appeal to some Chinese,” Wasserstrom said. “But a lot of the appeal is much more basic things. It’s being able to eat foods you can trust, breathe air without debilitating high smog levels.”
For some with newfound wealth, an American baby can also be a status symbol, said Yong Chen, a UC Irvine professor specializing in Asian American history.
“It’s a growing phenomenon,” Chen said. “Their neighbor goes to the U.S. to have a baby and another one, then they do it. It shows they can afford it.”
California is a well-known brand in Asia. Numerous American chains are popular there. Disney characters are big. And some newer trendy real estate developments emulate Southern California designs, including one near Beijing called Orange County, where the townhomes and estates take a page from planned developments here.
While Irvine isn’t “New York famous” in China, Chen said, its name recognition is growing. The city has developed a critical mass of Asian-friendly culture, such as the Diamond Jamboree hub of Asian eateries and the South Coast Chinese Culture Association that runs a popular Chinese language school. Other draws include top-rated University High School and UCI.
“Five or six years ago, people would ask, ‘Where is Irvine?’” Chen said. “Now, you don’t have to explain it.”
The city joins Los Angeles and San Francisco as the top three markets searched by prospective homebuyers from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to Realtor.com. Asians make up the top demographic at some of Southern California’s new housing developments. For example, Asians account for about 75 percent of the buyers at FivePoint Communities’ Pavilion Park project at the Orange County Great Park.
“Eighty-five percent of my business are foreign nationals. And most of them pay in full cash value,” said Christina Shaw, a real estate agent for Re/Max Fine Homes in Newport Beach.
The FBI has ranked Irvine as the safest big city in the country for the past 10 years. Money Magazine calls it the No.1 city in California.
Chen called Irvine a postmodern Chinatown.
“It doesn’t have the residential concentration like old communities. But there’s enough Chinese elements to make a newcomer feel welcome.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or rkopetman@ocregister.com