WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 4: — A former senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official tied to the Uyghur genocide has been arrested in California amid a disturbing child abuse investigation, drawing renewed attention to Beijing’s global influence operations.
Xuan Guojun, 65, and his wife Silvia Zhang, 38, were taken into custody by Arcadia police in May 2025 after their two-month-old infant was hospitalized with a traumatic head injury. The case has since expanded into a broader probe involving alleged abuse of 21 children, most of them toddlers, under the care of a nanny employed in their $4 million mansion in Arcadia.
According to The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF), security footage from the residence revealed shocking acts of abuse by the family’s nanny, Li Chunmei, 56. While criminal charges against Xuan and Zhang are still pending, authorities are scrutinizing their company, Mark Surrogacy Investments LLC, for potential legal violations, including the undisclosed use of surrogate mothers.
However, the case has drawn deeper concern due to Xuan’s long-standing role within the CCP’s apparatus in Xinjiang, the epicenter of China’s widely condemned campaign against Uyghur and other Turkic minorities.
From 1997 to 2012, Xuan served in both the Urumqi Municipal People’s Congress and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) People’s Congress, where he reportedly introduced over 200 legislative proposals, many of which supported policies enabling mass internment, forced sterilisation, and cultural repression of Uyghur Muslims.
“Their hands are fully stained with the blood of the Uyghur and other Turkic peoples,” said Salih Hudayar, Foreign Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile, speaking to DCNF. “Anyone who served in the XUAR Congress during this time is complicit in genocide.”
Investigations have also revealed that Xuan maintained active involvement in CCP-linked operations in the U.S., including affiliations with the United Front Work Department and a California-based organization reportedly running an unlicensed CCP-backed court system, as first reported by DCNF in January 2025.
Federal agencies including the FBI and Department of Justice are now assisting in the investigation, which many observers say underscores the alarming reach of CCP influence within the U.S., disguised under the facade of private business and quiet suburban life.
“This is more than a child abuse scandal,” said one federal source familiar with the matter. “It’s a national security wake-up call. How did a man linked to ethnic repression and state violence embed himself in an American neighborhood, virtually unnoticed?”
The case continues to unfold as authorities weigh potential federal charges against Xuan and Zhang. The nanny, Li Chunmei, remains in custody.
For human rights groups and Uyghur advocates, the case reaffirms long-standing concerns about impunity and transnational repression. It also raises urgent questions about oversight of foreign influence and accountability within U.S. systems meant to protect the vulnerable.
