Blackburn, and others, are taking aim at a Chinese educational program that is taught in some of our nation’s elementary and high schools, known as Confucius classrooms. The lessons are backed by Beijing’s Confucius Institute, a global educational program that has been widespread in U.S. universities.
However, some of the institutes have been shut down and kicked off American campuses, accused of spreading pro-China content in their curriculum. Now U.S. educational experts are worried that a generation younger than college-age is also being targeted.
“It’s deeply alarming to see the propaganda being taught to American students, but it’s even more alarming to see the way that the institutions that students depend on their schools, their teachers, their principals, administrators, how these institutions and these leaders are being molded and shaped to accept the Chinese government’s incursions and even to promote them in the name of globalism and intercultural communication,” says Rachelle Peterson, Senior Research Fellow at the National Association of Scholars.