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New York, NY; July 23, 2024—The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has just published a new report, China and Our Children. This report fills a gap in previous work by examining how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses language as a tool of asymmetric warfare, and its deployed effects in the United States. Confucius Classrooms (CCs) did not only expand from Confucius Institutes (CIs) and into K-12 schools; instead, they grew out of China’s strategy to influence America’s civic and business leaders.
“By teaching Mandarin abroad, Beijing can shape the worldviews of those future policymakers and elites most likely to work on China-related issues,” says the report’s author, Ian Oxnevad. “Due to the state and local focus of Beijing’s efforts, the problem of foreign influence in U.S. education poses a unique threat.”
Research on Confucius Classrooms has largely neglected to contextualize these programs within China’s overall strategy to influence education and other parts of American society. This report demonstrates how CCs fit within China’s efforts to build strategic economic and diplomatic partnerships with local and state officials. In some cases, such as North Carolina and Minnesota, governors forged ties with China at the state level. Major cities, such as Chicago, Seattle, and Portland, established similar relationships with China through bilateral programs.
“Ultimately, the problem posed by China’s Confucius programs and the proliferation of foreign funds in American schools amounts to a violation of sovereignty in education. In the case of China, Beijing has developed a conscious international strategy to exert influence on various sectors of American life surrounding K-12 schools,” Oxnevad continues.
The three chapters of the report examine key aspects of the persistence of Chinese influence in American education. The first chapter of this report discusses the origins and strategy of China’s use of Confucius as a label for its soft power efforts to gain influence abroad. The second chapter examines CCs in the U.S., and how they have been founded and sustained by the efforts of nonprofits and policymakers at the state and local level. This third chapter surveys three surviving Confucius Classrooms discovered by Parents Defending Education last year.
China and Our Children offers a number of reforms to ensure American’s regain control of language programs in their schools. Namely that Congress revitalize the Foreign Agent Registration Act, develop and offer foreign language curricula based in American ideals and worldviews, and establish ratio funding restrictions on universities.
“All in all, American educators and policymakers must act swiftly and decisively to counter the influence and durability of China’s Confucius programs,” Oxnevad concludes.
About the Author
Ian Oxnevad holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California and an MA in national security studies, along with degrees in Arabic and English. He has taught at multiple levels of higher education, and specializes in economic warfare, counterterrorism, and Middle East politics. Dr. Oxnevad is the coauthor of After Confucius: China’s Enduring Influence on Higher Education, and The Company They Keep: The Organizational and Economic Dynamics of the BDS Movement. He is the NAS’ resident China expert, is widely published in these subjects, and has consulted for the private sector on them. In his spare time, he is an equestrian and is pursuing a second doctorate in theology.
NAS is a network of scholars and citizens united by a commitment to academic freedom, disinterested scholarship, and excellence in American higher education. Membership in NAS is open to all who share a commitment to these broad principles. NAS publishes a journal and has state and regional affiliates. Visit NAS at www.nas.org.
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For more information about this topic, please contact Chance Layton at [email protected].
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