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A Chinese government program at 83 U.S. colleges is part of an “ongoing effort to influence American students’ perceptions of the communist country,” according to a recent report by a conservative watchdog group.
The Young Envoys Scholarship (YES) is an international exchange initiative launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2024 to bring 50,000 U.S. students to study in or visit China for cultural exchange, according to the Defending Education report.
It is “run by the China Education Association for International Exchange, an organization guided by ‘Marxism-Leninism’ and Xi Jinping's Thoughts on Socialism,” the report states.
Be informed, not misled.
Reagan Dugan, Director of Higher Education Initiatives at Defending Education, told The College Fix that the program is operating in American schools without students and families knowing its real agenda.
Dugan added that the program needs greater monitoring. “US oversight must apply the same diligence to American students traveling to China at the behest of the CCP that they do to foreign students studying in America,” she said.
A policy expert also raised national security concerns.
Andrew Harding, the Heritage Foundation’s policy analyst for national security, told them that American students should avoid the program.
“While marketed as an educational exchange, it is best understood as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s broader strategy to shape foreign perceptions of China among students and, ultimately, future professionals,” Harding said.
He added that “Beijing would not devote substantial resources to bringing thousands of Americans to China unless it expected a return in the form of improved perceptions.”
Which American schools are participating?
A 2026 YES trip brought students from New York University, MIT, and Harvard University to the Zhi-Xing China: U.S.-China Youth Leaders Dialogue to discuss green energy, technology, and “social governance.”
A 2024 YES trip through the University of Chicago had students directly engage with “United Front-linked or state propaganda bodies,” Defending Education reported.
In addition, students and faculty from Indiana University “participated in a four-day exchange program at Xi’ University, which the Australian Strategic Policy Institute flagged for ties to ‘sanctioned, Russia-linked, and military/critical-technology-connected entities,’” the report states.
These are some of the schools in Washington and Oregon that have or are participating in this program:
WASHINGTON
- Washington State University
- Young Envoys Scholarship – November 2024
- Steilacoom Historical School District
- Steilacoom High School
In March 2024, 14 Steilacoom High School students visited China as part of a joint delegation with Lincoln High School.
Deputy Consul General Song Guoxuan, based in San Francisco, “expressed his hope that they will embrace the experience with open minds.”
- Tacoma Public Schools
- Foss High School
- Young Envoys Scholarship – July 2024
OREGON
- West Linn-Wilsonville School District
- Rosemont Ridge Middle School
In July 2024, students from Rosemont Ridge Middle School, accompanied by other institutions, “formed a delegation [to] Zhixing China” and “visited Beijing Bayi School for an in-depth artistic exchange with the Bayi Dance Troupe.”
The academic institutions are listed in a news release from the department, which states that “organizations associated with rebranded Confucius Institutes” are among them.
You may remember that the People’s Republic of China used to spread its communist political agenda in colleges through the infamous Confucius Institutes program, but the program ended after the Federal government found it intentionally fostered pro-CCP perceptions among Americans, according to Defending Education.
The University of Washington hosted a Confucius Institute.
I wrote about it here and talked about it on our daily radio program at the time.
Well... founded with the same goal of advancing the Chinese Communist Party’s global soft power campaign, YES, a short- or long-term intensive program in China, is the communist nation’s latest version of college programming targeting American citizens.
The Department of War has issued formal notifications to 30 domestic academic institutions, directing them to conduct immediate, comprehensive reviews of their academic, financial, and research collaborations with foreign entities of concern.
These notifications address active institutional ties and collaborations with foreign entities identified under Section 1286 of the FY19 NDAA, as well as organizations associated with rebranded Confucius Institutes. Executed by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, this action is designed to protect American taxpayer-funded research investments from unauthorized technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and adversarial exploitation.
"The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security."
Takeaway
The Chinese Communist Party is once again using a new tactic to win over the minds and hearts of our children.
In 1838, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois. The subject was citizenship and the preservation of America’s political institutions. The backdrop was the threat posed to those institutions by the evil of slavery. Lincoln warned that the greatest danger to the nation came from within. All the armies of the world could not crush us, he maintained, but we could still “die by suicide.”
He said, "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
China continues its quest to feed America's children the poison pill of Communism.
And do so on our own soil.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.
