Unveiling the Hidden Agenda: How Confucius Institutes are Operating Under the Radar in the U.S

The American educational community is once again warning of the dangers of “Confucius Classrooms” in their own country. As of September 2024, China is known to have spent at least $17 million (about 22.62 billion won) to establish so-called Confucius Classrooms in 143 school districts across the United States. Confucius Classrooms are the children’s version of Confucius Institutes. If Confucius Classrooms are established in conjunction with “universities,” they will be operated in elementary and secondary educational institutions.

While the U.S. Congress and the administration have been focusing on funding and operating Confucius Institutes, there has been no oversight of their operations.

“This is a national security issue,” Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters told the House Committee on Education and the Workforce last year. “When you look at the brainwashing that is happening in our nation’s classrooms from all angles, it’s one of the most evil things that’s ever happened.”

According to a report by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said, “What they (the Chinese Communist Party) want is for our children to believe that ‘China is a good system and a normal country.’ We cannot allow that to happen.”

Confucius Institutes are ostensibly Chinese cultural exchange programs. They are offered to school districts in the United States and provide opportunities to learn Chinese. The problem is that they are funded by the Chinese government and teach history and politics from the perspective of the Chinese Communist Party to young people. This is a problem that has been raised consistently, especially in the Western world.

“They will not talk about sensitive issues like what happened in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, they will not mention Taiwan at all, and when they do mention Taiwan, they use the official Chinese government version: ‘Taiwan is a part of China. It always has been and always will be.’” said Helen Raleigh, a spokeswoman for the conservative youth group Young America’s Foundation and author of critical books about Confucius Institutes, including “Confucius Never Said” and “Backlash: How China’s Aggression Has Backfired.”

CBN cited examples in its report, saying, “China is providing massive subsidies to individual schools.” The network reported, “Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia, has received more than $1 million in donations for its Confucius Institute program.”

“Confucius Institutes are operating near 20 military bases and are affecting the children of U.S. military personnel,” said Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education.

“We don’t know what’s going on at the military bases, and that’s the scariest part,” Nikon Neilly, the president of Confucius Institutes, told a House hearing. “Who are the Confucius Institute staff, what areas do they have access to, what’s going on, what’s going into the heads and hearts of our children?” he said.

In March, Parents for Education revealed that a nonprofit affiliated with Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology had received more than $1 million in financial support from Chinese government agencies over a decade. A follow-up investigation found that China had been building relationships with U.S. K-12 schools through grants, sister-school partnerships, and other programs since at least 2009.

Parents for Education tracked the external relationships of 143 schools in 34 states and Washington, D.C. The financial transactions between K-12 institutions and the Chinese government ranged from thousands of dollars to, as in the case of Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology, more than a million dollars. The group also said that school districts near 20 military bases in the U.S. have been targeted by the Chinese government. “What’s concerning is that Confucius Institutes are giving the Chinese government access to school and student data,” CBN warned.

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