Dave Patterson
Keeping the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) out of Americans’ everyday affairs is becoming more challenging. We’ve seen Beijing-backed businesses purchase real estate and other US enterprises. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has scientists embedded in America’s most sensitive research facilities. Liberty Nation’s political correspondent, Joe Schaeffer, alerted readers to the extent to which PRC initiatives have permeated US society. The fact that President Biden’s son Hunter has opened the door to Chinese businesses in the US simply underpins the level to which the CCP is a part of the American fabric.
Schaeffer also pointed out the deep penetration the Chinese have made in American colleges and universities. US universities are opening their academic freedom doors and research capability to the CCP-sponsored students because, as Schaeffer explains, “All those students mean a lot of money for universities. And when it comes to choosing between hard cash and the national security concerns, guess which side academia keeps turning to?” In addition, now we learn Chinese businesses have bought US military academies that are supposed to prepare young people for patriotic service in the US Armed Forces.
China Running Our Military Schools Is Not Good
But with the PRC involved in the military institutions’ curriculum and culture development, what kind of military service members will graduates become? There’s a better than even chance these young people will not see China for the economic and military threat that it is. More likely, they will take a conciliatory point of view – a kinder, gentler approach to America’s most dangerous peer competitor. Congressman Michael Waltz (R-FL) is an outspoken critic of CCP-sponsored intrusion into the US, particularly the recent revelation of Beijing’s ownership of military academies. Waltz warned in a press release:
It’s incredibly concerning that there are American private schools owned by companies with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party. From Florida to New York, there is clear evidence that the ownership of these schools [is] linked to our greatest adversary and it’s ridiculous that we are developing potential future military leaders through JROTC [Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps] programs where the CCP could be shaping school curriculum and activities.
The buying up of private schools with JROTC programs has been happening since the Obama administration. “In 2015, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which serves as the Chinese Communist Party’s political advisory board, purchased Donald Trump’s alma mater, the New York Military Academy, for $16 million dollars,” Chuck Ross wrote in The Washington Free Beacon. Within two years, a Chinese education consortium bought Florida Preparatory Academy in its campaign to establish “a global education alliance system”, Ross explained.
How Many Military Schools Does China Run?
Waltz, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wants to get to the bottom of how extensive the presence of Beijing’s attempts to worm its way into key US military education systems is. On January 31, the congressman sent Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III a letter requesting the Defense Department to examine its junior military school programs. The letter explained:
To gain a broader understanding of the scope of this influence, and whether Department resources are inadvertently helping promote and support these schools, I request that the Department survey all of its JROTC, NJROTC and AFJROTC programs located at private schools across the country and whether their schools are owned by a subsidiary of a foreign company, and the name of the subsidiary and foreign company.”
The full text of the letter is available on the congressman’s website. Having a foreign country wheedle its way into the US education system is troubling enough, but having such encroachments into institutions preparing future US Armed Forces’ military members and leaders is more than a little disconcerting. Americans do not want to wake up one morning finding their military school youngsters carrying Mao’s “Little Red Book”.
