Some protesters commemorate the 30th anniversary of the June 4 massacre on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on June 4, 2019.
A conservative U.S. media outlet recently revealed that the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a Communist Party united front group, has launched a campaign to reshape K-12 instruction in the United States, including an attempt to “influence” textbooks while funding organizations that set curriculum in U.S. schools.
The National Pulse reported on January 7 that CUSEF, a foundation founded by the vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, has been designated by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) as the “top oversight body” for the CCP’s United Front Work Department.
According to a USCC report released in 2018, CUSEF works to “co-opt and counteract” potential opposition to CCP policies and authority and to push Westerners to “take actions or positions that support Beijing’s policies.
The report emphasized that CUSEF’s efforts to gain “favorable” publicity from Western media and former congressional representatives have been applied to U.S. schools as well. However, although the organization has extended invitations to U.S. schools at the university level, many have withdrawn their funding in light of its close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Nonetheless, U.S. textbooks for grades K-12 are not immune to CUSEF infiltration. [Note: K refers to Kindergarten].
Tampering with U.S. Textbooks
According to a 2011 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing with the U.S. Department of Justice, CUSEF’s U.S. lobbying firm, BLJ Worldwide (BLJ), influences U.S. textbooks on behalf of organizations affiliated with the Chinese Communist government.
As an example, the document states that CUSEF sought to “introduce” a “strong, factual counter-argument to defend and promote China’s actions in the Tibet Autonomous Region,” which has been suppressed and occupied by the Chinese Communist Party for more than 70 years.
“By creating our own set of factual accounts of China’s impact on Tibet and producing a report that removes the emotion, we believe we will have a strong platform to address China’s critics.” The report reads.
To that end, BLJ has already conducted the first phase of textbook analysis, and once the CUSEF-sponsored study is published, BLJ will have the materials to engage with interested parties and in turn begin liaising with editors and publishers of U.S. textbooks.
This process includes several other aspects, such as influencing key constituencies (politicians, scholars, and experts) and public opinion about the CCP’s views on Tibet, changing the debate on Tibet in the United States to be less purely emotional, focusing on the CCP’s “positive” influence on Tibetan history, and beginning a “long-term strategy” to get the next generation of American thought leaders to “better understand the China-Tibet issue.
Conducting a Communist Tutorial
Since 2008, CUSEF has partnered with the U.S. nonprofit Primary Source to help provide “source materials and targeted curriculum consultation” to K-12 schools.
“Primary Source has boasted that it has “reached more than 1 million students” since 1989. Several independent schools in the United States and several public school districts in Massachusetts have partnered with the organization.
“According to Primary Source’s website, CUSEF has been “funding our China program” and sponsoring trips to China for its educators since 2008.
CUSEF has also confirmed in its brochure that it has supported two two-week study trips to China for U.S. K-12 teachers arranged by Primary Source, in 2008 and 2009.
In addition, CUSEF has “sponsored” visits to Beijing and Shanghai for American high school students in Los Angeles to “familiarize them with Chinese culture. Since 2013, the Chicago Urban League has also sent an annual delegation of 20 high school students to China as part of a trip “supported and funded” by CUSEF. The Chicago Urban League has also sent a delegation of 20 high school students to China each year since 2013 as part of a CUSEF “supported and funded” trip.
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