China is believed to have spent at least $17 million setting up so-called “Confucius Classrooms” in 143 school districts in the US to teach Beijing’s worldview to schoolchildren.

Confucius Classrooms are the public school version of Confucius Institutes – Chinese government-funded cultural programs run on university campuses.

But as Congress cracks down on Confucius Institutes by targeting their funding, experts told the House Education and Workforce Committee that Confucius classrooms receive little to no oversight.

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters told House members, “This is a national security issue. When you look at the indoctrination that takes place in our classrooms from different perspectives, this is one of the most abhorrent.”

“What they want to do is get our children to believe that it is a good system and that China is a normal country that is not tyrannical,” said China expert Mike Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation. “We can’t allow that.”

Confucius Classrooms are offered to school districts as cultural exchange programs and as a way to learn the Mandarin language. But they are funded by the Chinese Communist government and teach young people the Chinese Communist Party’s perspective on politics and history.

Helen Raleigh of The Federalist and author of “Backlash: How China’s Aggression Has Backfired” says: “They won’t talk about sensitive issues like what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and they won’t talk about Taiwan at all, or when they talk.” About Taiwan, they will use the official version to say: “Taiwan is a province of China, always has been and always will be.”

And China offers schools a lot of money. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia, has reportedly announced that it has received more than $1 million in donations through the Confucius Classroom program.

Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, also says Confucius Classrooms operate near 20 military bases and influence the children of American service members.

During the House hearing, Neily said, “On your question about military bases, we don’t know what’s happening. And that’s the scariest part for me. Who are these (Confucius Classroom) staff? What access do they have?” to and what goes back and forth, does both go into the minds of our children? And what data flows out of it?”

This is concerning because Confucius Classrooms also gives the Chinese government access to data about schools and students.

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