America already outsources commerce, content creation, digital marketing, product manufacturing, and much more to China, so it would only make sense that the Chinese Communist Party would have some sort of influence within our government schools.
As much as we may frown at the concept of China playing any role in the education of our children, a report released by Parents Defending Education last week confirmed that the Chinese government has been involved to the tune of $17 million in over 140 school districts between 2009 and 2023. There are seven contracts that are known to be still active in Texas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington.
The Chinese government uses affiliated financial institutions and infiltrates American schools through the creation of “Confucius Classrooms” which masquerade as language and cultural programs. Reaching back all the way to 2009, China has used sister school partnerships and grant programs to funnel the money, and since not all of the programs look identical, many have flown under the radar even though they are hiding in plain sight.
It is not by accident that these programs are operating in schools near twenty different American military bases, which makes perfect sense given China’s current farmland takeover all over our country, in which some of the land is within spitting distance from military operations.
This very obvious problem is not only impacting primary and secondary schools: Chinese money is also sneaking its way into the halls of higher education.
The National Defense Authorization Act passed in 2021 explicitly stated that the Pentagon was prohibited from providing money to any institution of higher education that hosts a Confucius Institute after October 2023. With this date fast approaching, the National Association of Scholars has said there are a total of thirteen Confucius Institutes still operating in the United States, with over 108 that have already closed or are in the process of closing.
Last week, thirty-four governors, committee chairs, and lawmakers were handed the report, and obvious concern and outrage followed. “The Trump administration took steps to rein in Confucius Institutes at colleges and universities,” Parents Defending Education President Nicki Neily commented in a statement. “It is frightening, however, that no such transparency mandate exists at the K-12 level. Accordingly, it is imperative that elected officials at both the federal and state levels take immediate action to gauge the extent of these programs in order to ensure that American schoolchildren receive a high-quality education free from undue foreign interference."
Since the report surfaced, many politicians are speaking out and calling for the immediate shutdown of all Chinese interference into places of education. Representative Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, wrote a strongly worded letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, making his concern clear and urging immediate action on the part of the federal government.
Even still, the fact that this has been going on for as long as it has, despite the stated intentions of the Chinese Communist Party, is alarming. The Chinese government makes no bones about its goals when influencing our national curriculum and instructing our students.
Li Changchun, a member of the Chinese Politburo Standing Committee, stated in 2009 that Confucius Institutes were an “important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up.” Our greatest foreign adversaries have made their goals very clear and we, either through negligence, willful surrender, or nefarious motives, have acquiesced.
