Parent Activist Group Warns of Chinese Communist Infiltration Into US K–12 Classrooms

Then-vice president of China Xi Jinping unveils a plaque at the opening of Australia's first Chinese Medicine Confucius Institute at the RMIT University in Melbourne on June 20, 2010. William West/AFP/Getty Images

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has funded Chinese language teaching programs in at least 143 K–12 school districts in 34 states and the District of Columbia, according to a report from Parents Defending Education (PDE), a parent activist group, released on July 26.

PDE identifies these classrooms as “little red classrooms,” an extension of the Confucius Institutes (CI). The CI program is partially funded by the CCP, which picks and pays for textbooks and selects and pays Chinese nationals who come to the United States to teach Chinese language, culture, and history.