Confucius Schools - CCP In The Classroom
A Tale Of Chinese Dark Money And Nontraditional Espionage
CRT and gender studies aren't all you have to worry about when it comes to your child's education.
What is a Confucius school?
In 2004, CCP set out to promote Chinese language and culture as well as teach CCP political policies within the world's education system. So it set out to create Confucius Schools - CCP government educational programs within the world's education systems to promote Chinese influence, suppress academic freedom, and spread Chinese propaganda.
In the same year, the first Confucius Institute was opened at the University of Maryland, College Park.
In April 2007, Li Changchun, then chairman of the Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization under the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said in a report by Xinhua, a Chinese state-run newspaper, that Confucius Institutes were an "important part of the CCP's external propaganda structure.”
By 2018, the Chinese government had spent more than $150 million in American education and had over 100 schools ranging from K-12 to the university level in the US.
In 2018, awareness of such schools came from anon research threads as well as the government's (and the VOA's) efforts to rid America of CCP influence. There was an effort to locate and close down such institutions. It might be important to note that Mike Pompeo, who was the United States Secretary of State at that time, played an important role in this and was the driving force to push China out of American institutions.
In 2019, the DOD announced it would not provide funding for universities hosting Confucius Institutes. The US State Department designated the Confucius Institute US Center as a Chinese foreign mission in the US, saying:
On August 13, 2020, the Department of State designated the Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS), which serves as the Washington D.C.-based de facto headquarters of the Confucius Institute network, as a foreign mission of the People’s Republic of China. The opacity of this organization and its state-directed nature are the driving reasons behind this designation.
By 2021, only 25% of the Confucius Institutes that had opened in the US were still in operation.
Controversial Confucius Institutes Returning to U.S. Schools Under New Name
Confucius Institutes in the United States
Confucius Schools - A Darker Purpose
One such school that had closed down its program in 2020 was the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn is making sure the Chinese government isn’t infiltrating American education in her state. The Confucius Institute, a public educational partnership, has ties to the Chinese Ministry of Education. One chapter was closed down at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
TN Sen. Marsha Blackburn Cheers Shutdown of Confucius Institute at U of M
That same year the Department of Justice arrested a professor from that very same University of Tennessee who had ties to China.
The arrest is part of a broader Justice Department crackdown against university researchers who conceal their ties to Chinese institutions, with a Harvard chemistry professor recently arrested on similar charges. Federal officials have also asserted that Beijing is intent on stealing intellectual property from America’s colleges and universities.
Justice Dept. charges University of Tennessee professor with hiding ties to China
In fact, we can see many such arrests taking place at universities across the nation. This was all done under the China Initiative, a program by the Department of Justice to prosecute Chinese spies in America to combat economic espionage. This program was launched in November 2018 and ended in February 23, 2022 under Biden's administration.
Dr. Charles Lieber
The Department of Justice announced today [January 28, 2020] that the Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department and two Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China.
Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases
The professor in question was one Dr. Charles Lieber. He had received $15 million in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Pentagon over the years. He made false statements regarding his role as a “strategic scientist” at the Wuhan University of Technology. He also forgot to disclose his salary for and participation in Thousand Talents, which is a program created by the Chinese government to recruit experts in science and technology from abroad. (Think Operation Paperclip but without the war, war crimes, and relocation opportunities to another country. One thing to note, all the cases listed below are tied to the Thousand Talents program.)
It was later released that Lieber was being paid $50,000 per month by the Chinese university and given $1.5 million to establish a nanoscience research lab at Wuhan University of Technology. (Wuhan, again?)
He was found guilty of two counts of making false statements to federal authorities, two counts of making and subscribing a false income tax return, and two counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts with the IRS.
Currently, Lieber is moving for a retrial.
Gang Chen
Gang Chen was a MIT professor and engineer who failed to disclose his work with China to the US Department of Energy when he applied for millions of dollars in grants. He knowingly defrauded taxpayers out of at least $19 million in grants to enhance China's research in nanotechnology. In total, he had accepted about $29 million in foreign funding, primarily through China, as well as received at least $355,000 personally for his services. This was ultimately never disclosed it to MIT or the US government.
Even though his felony charges mirrored Lieber's, prosecutors ultimately dropped the case.
MIT Professor Gang Chen Charged With Millions In Grant Fraud, Hiding China Ties
Justice Department drops China spy initiative as past target speaks out
Lin Yang
Lin Yang, another engineer, was a University of Florida professor and researcher and resident of China has been indicted for fraudulently obtaining $1.75 million in federal grant money from the National Institutes of Health. He also concealed a company that he founded in China to profit from that research. He was charged with six counts of wire fraud and four counts of making false statements to an agency of the US.
In 2019, he traveled to China and hasn't returned yet.
Former Florida professor indicted for fraudulently obtaining $1.75M federal grant
Song Guo Zheng
Song Guo Zheng was a university professor and researcher in rheumatology at Ohio State University. Prosecutors say he engaged in “a sophisticated medical grant fraud scheme.”
While trying to flee to China, Zheng was arrested in Alaska during a flight layover.
Zheng was sentenced to 37 months in prison for making false statements to federal authorities. He was also ordered to pay more than $3.4 million in restitution to the National Institute of Health and $413,000 to The Ohio State University.
Song Guo Zheng, Ohio State University professor, charged with grant fraud
Researcher Charged with Illegally Using U.S. Grant Funds to Develop Scientific Expertise for China
Mingqing Xiao
Mingqing Xiao was a mathematics professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He was charged on two counts of wire fraud as well as for making false statements. He didn't disclose that that he had received grants from China’s Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province and that he was working for the Chinese government-affiliated Shenzhen University. He was also the last to be indicted under the China Initiative, which has now become defunct.
He was found guilty earlier this year of filing incorrect tax returns and failing to report a foreign bank account. He received no prison time and was sentenced today to 1 year of probation.
U.S. math professor gets probation, not prison, in China Initiative case
The Cases Go On and On
Zhengdong Cheng was a NASA researcher.
Professor, NASA Researcher Zhengdong Cheng Pleads Guilty in China Ties Case
NASA Researcher Arrested for False Statements and Wire Fraud in Relation to China’s Talents Program
Simon Saw-Teong Ang was a University of Arkansas electrical engineering professor and researcher. He had 24 patents filed with the Chinese government.
Former professor sentenced for 1 year in federal prison for lying to FBI agent
University of Arkansas Professor Indicted for Wire Fraud and Passport Fraud
University of Arkansas Professor Pleads Guilty to Lying to Federal Agents About Patents in China
Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li was a Emory Professor who also worked worked overseas in Chinese Universities. He researched the use of large animal models in the treatment of Huntington's disease. He was sentenced to one year probation and to pay back $35,089 in restitution.
“This defendant thought that he could live two, separate lives — one here at Emory University and one in China as a Thousand Talents Program participant. Eventually, the truth caught up to this defendant, and he is now a convicted felon who is ordered to repay over $35,000 to the IRS.” - US Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak
The China Initiative - DOJ's Attempt to Stop Nontraditional Espionage
Approximately 80 percent of all economic espionage prosecutions brought by the US Department of Justice are cases that would benefit and involve the Chinese state. 60% of all trade secret theft cases directly involve or are linked to China.
In March 2018, the Office of the US Trade Representative announced the results of an investigation of China’s trade practices under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974... or a whole bunch of jargon. Basically what came out of that report was that China was engaged in a whole slew of practices that were unreasonable when getting along with other countries. These practices included outbound investment policies and sponsoring unauthorized computer intrusions.
In other words, China was paying people off with bribes and paying some to illegally access computer files on research and/or company trademark information.
In June 2018, the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy issued a really long titled report called “How China’s Economic Aggression Threatens the Technologies and Intellectual Property of the United States and the World.” It said that “the two major strategies and various acts, policies, and practices Chinese industrial policy uses in seeking to acquire the intellectual property and technologies of the world and to capture the emerging high- technology industries that will drive future economic growth.” So basically, China was trying to steal new technology and were engaging in "trade secret theft, hacking, and economic espionage."
So the DOJ came up with a response — The China Initiative. This was basically focuses on "protecting our critical infrastructure against external threats through foreign direct investment and supply chain compromises, as well as combatting covert efforts to influence the American public and policymakers without proper transparency."
In 2022, the Biden administration basically said that the China Initiative was racist and stopped the program. They claimed that this was due to "perceptions that it unfairly painted Chinese Americans and United States residents of Chinese origin as disloyal."
Other Reading
Washington Examiner did a two part series about this. If you are interested in learning more, I highly suggest these articles. And as always, do your own research.
China on campus: How the DOJ has battled 'nontraditional espionage'