The news was accidentally revealed by Ye’s close friend Miao Lijie, who is her former teammate on China’s women’s basketball team, when attending a show at Shanghai World Expo on Monday. When asked why Ye did not come to the show with her, Miao said a “pregnant woman deserves less public activities.”

Yao, 29, marked his marriage to longtime girlfriend Ye, 28, with a lavish August 2007 ceremony.

CORRECTING CAPTION DETAIL AND IPTC FIELDS NBA Houston Rockets basketball player Yao Ming(notes) poses with a signed shirt from the CBA’s Shanghai Sharks, which he owns, during a press conference in Shanghai on December 18, 2009. China’s NBA star Yao Ming said his broken left foot was on the mend and he planned to return to the Houston Rockets for the 2010-11 season. Yao also appeared at a second press conference on December 18 where he urged China to say no to shark fin soup to stop the overfishing of some species amid growing demand for the delicacy. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

The couple hasn’t decided yet where the baby will be born, but whether boy or girl, “lil’ Yao” is sure to be one thing: creepy tall. Yao stands at 7-foot-6-inches, while Ye towers over most women at 6-foot-2.

In a recent Sina.com online poll, 76 percent of more than 29,000 people voting said that Yao’s child was likely to grow taller than 6-foot-8, while 33 percent said the baby would grow taller than 7-foot-2. However, according to the calculations of medical experts, cited by China Daily, if the child is male, he probably will reach a height of between 6-foot-6 to 7-foot-3. Translation: the kid is going to be huge.

Not that it matters. The lil’ tyke is probably already the leading vote-getter in the Western Conference, after the fourth returns of the NBA All-Star balloting are released. China, man. China. So powerful.