Beijing's "Young Envoys" Program Has Quietly Entered More Than 100 American Schools, New Report Finds

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A Program With A Political Core

The parents' rights group Defending Education has published a new investigation into the "Young Envoys Scholarship" (YES), an exchange program launched by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2023. The goal, announced during a visit to San Francisco, was to bring 50,000 young Americans to China over five years.

The program is run by the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), a body affiliated with China's Ministry of Education. According to the organization's own Chinese-language materials, CEAIE describes Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" as its guiding framework.

The new report found that the program has already reached dozens of American colleges and, notably, dozens of K-12 schools — meaning some participants are minors on state-organized trips abroad.

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What Students Actually See

One example stands out from the investigation: a 2025 CEAIE newsletter describes a trip in which 27 students from a Chicago-area high school traveled to Xinjiang. The region is where the U.S. government and independent human rights researchers say Chinese authorities have carried out mass detention and other abuses against Uyghur Muslims.

Rather than any reference to that record, the newsletter shows students taking calligraphy and dance classes, practicing Tai Chi and relaxing at a resort beach. Testimonials collected from participants were notably warm: one student reportedly called themselves "a China fan," while a teacher said she agreed with Xi's message that "the future is in the hands of the youth." Such quotes have since appeared in Chinese state media.

Researchers say this pattern — curated experiences paired with favorable quotes funneled into state propaganda outlets — is precisely what worries critics of the program.

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Washington Is Already Watching

The findings arrive as scrutiny of CCP-linked programs in U.S. education has been building in Congress. In August 2025, Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, sent letters to local officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Des Moines, Iowa, after learning that CEAIE-sponsored trips had sent dozens of high schoolers to China that spring.

"It is a tool used by the CCP to expand its influence over the American public," Moolenaar wrote, arguing that student exchanges of this kind function as propaganda and influence operations rather than genuine cultural exchange.

His committee has separately pressed universities over Chinese-government-linked partnerships and funding, part of a broader Republican-led push — one that has found a receptive audience under the Trump administration's more assertive posture toward Beijing's activities on American soil, including in classrooms.

Defending Education's Reagan Dugan echoed that concern, telling reporters that current disclosure rules haven't kept pace with the scale of CCP-linked programming now present in U.S. schools. "American students and families deserve to know if their school is partnering with a CCP operation," she said.

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Beijing Rejects The Criticism

The Chinese government has firmly pushed back. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing is "committed to promoting mutual understanding and friendship" between the two countries and accused critics of "politicizing normal people-to-people, educational and economic exchanges."

On its own English-language pages, CEAIE describes YES simply as a way to "enhance mutual understanding" between young Americans and China, offering subsidized travel, homestays and cultural programming through partner universities across the country.

CEAIE did not respond to a request for comment on the new report.

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Part Of A Longer Pattern

The YES program is not the first CCP-linked education initiative to draw scrutiny. In recent years, watchdog groups have also documented Confucius Classroom partnerships — Chinese-government-funded language and culture programs — operating in well over a hundred U.S. school districts, some near military installations. Several of those arrangements have since been closed following congressional pressure.

Analysts who track Chinese Communist Party influence operations say both programs reflect a consistent strategy: use cultural and educational access to build long-term goodwill among young Americans while screening out uncomfortable subjects — from Xinjiang to Hong Kong to the Party's record of religious persecution, including its decades-long campaign against Falun Gong practitioners.

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What Comes Next

With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House taking a tougher line on Chinese influence operations, more scrutiny of exchange programs like YES appears likely. Lawmakers have floated stronger disclosure requirements for schools accepting foreign government funding or partnerships, though no binding federal rule currently exists.

For now, families and school boards largely decide on their own whether to participate — often without full visibility into who is designing the curriculum their children experience abroad.

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Sources:

1. House Select Committee on the CCP – "Chairman Moolenaar Urges Local Leaders to End Ties with Chinese Communist Party Front Groups" (Aug. 18, 2025): https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/media/press-releases/chairman-moolenaar-urges-local-leaders-to-end-ties-with-chinese-communist-party-front-groups
2. Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the U.S. – "Young Envoys Scholarship" (YES) Program overview: https://us.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/lxfw/studyinchina/youngenvoys/
3. Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the U.S. – Remarks by Ambassador Xie Feng announcing the YES program: https://us.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/dshd/202401/t20240129_11234863.htm
4. Defending Education – organizational background and investigations: https://defendinged.org/about/
5. CEAIE – Young Envoys Scholarship Newsletter, Vol. 2024.11-12 (PDF): https://en.ceaie.edu.cn/uploads/attached/file/20250408/408919600205833.pdf
6. EdWeek – background on prior "Little Red Classrooms" / Confucius Classroom findings: https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/why-gop-politicians-are-talking-about-k-12-chinese-language-and-culture-classes/2023/10

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