US schools participated in Xi-backed program promoting communist ideology: Report
byGEOFF HARRIS | The National News Desk
Sat, August 15th 2026 at 10:40 PM
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PROVO, UT – AUGUST 13: A teacher sets up her classroom at Freedom Preparatory Academy as teachers begin to prepare to restart school after it was closed in March due to COVID-19 on August 13, 2020 in Provo, Utah. The school is planning to have students return on August 18 for five days a week instruction, but with reduced hours during the day. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
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ChinaXi JinpingStudyabroadCommunistideologyYoung EnvoysUnited FrontUnited StatesDefending Education
WASHINGTON (TNND) —Dozens of American schools and universities have taken part in a China-backed study abroad initiative launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping and run by an agency dedicated to promoting communist political ideology, according to a new report from the parents’ rights group Defending Education
According to the report, titled “Little Red Classrooms: Young Envoys Scholarship Program,” about 83 universities and 26 K-12 schools have participated in China’s Young Envoys Scholarship program. Defending Education reports the program is run by the China Education Association for International Exchange and is guided by Marxism-Leninism and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism
Speaking with The National News Desk Friday, Defending Education President & Founder Nicole Neily said she does not want children in her community exposed to those ideas
I don’t want my children, I don’t want my neighbors, I don’t want my community being exposed to those thoughts,” Neily said.
The initiative was announced by Xi in 2023 and is aimed at bringing 50,000 U.S. students to study abroad in China over the next five years Neily said her group’s concern is what students are being taught and exposed to while participating
In the volume of students that have gone over and in this aspiration, what we’re concerned about is what kinds of things students are being taught. What are they being exposed to,” Neily said.
Defending Education’s report also describes multiple trips involving “direct engagement with United Front linked or state propaganda bodies,” including delegations from the University of Chicago and Columbia University
On the K-12 side, Defending Education reports a 2024 trip from Muscatine High School in Iowa was personally arranged by Xi and fully funded by the Chinese government. At the time, Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) called it a national security concern, writing in a press release, “Whether it’s buying up farmland in Iowa, spying on Americans or protecting Chinese ownership of TikTok, the long arm of the CCP apparatus will continue their attempts to infiltrate and interfere with U.S. national security interests.”
Neily raised additional concerns about what students may bring back from the trips. “What are these children bringing back and how will technology that they bring with them be used to track them in the future? I think there are a lot of questions that should go along with the program that I think, unfortunately, parents don’t even think to ask right now,” she said
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. said in a statement to Fox News Digital that China opposes politicizing normal people-to-people educational and economic exchanges
The spokesperson added, “Such unfounded accusations serve no constructive purpose and do not contribute to the healthy development of China-U.S. relations.”
Neily said Defending Education hopes state leaders and attorneys general review the report, and said that after the group’s first report in 2023, dozens of governors from both parties did not respond
This is finally the time that policymakers sit up, take notice and do something about it to protect our families and our country,” Neily said.
In its report, Defending Education listed each of the 83 universities and K-12 schools it identified as participants. Including multiple Ivy League schools in addition to Columbia, such as Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton and Cornell
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