Bin was a 25-year-old young man from a northern province in China. From 2007 to 2008, he was lucky to be selected by the Chinese government and sent to the United States to teach Mandarin Chinese at a high school in Belpre, a small city in Ohio, with a population of 6,500.
I met Bin when I was a visiting scholar at a college near Belpre. An American professor introduced me to Bin, and told me that he felt lonely and needed friends. When I first met Bin, my impression was that he was happy. He liked talking and laughed all the time. Bin seemed popular at Belpre High School, and he told me that his students liked his Chinese class. However, he had issues with his host families, who provided him with free meals and lodging. Bin felt mistreated and complained about the unfriendliness of residents in Belpre. Bin’s predecessor, a young Chinese lady, also claimed that her host family mistreated her, and left before the end of her term.
Little by little, I learned that Bin had just started teaching in a middle school in his hometown before he came to the United States. He was a Communist Party member, and because of this special membership, he got the opportunity to come to the United States. Bin always talked how appreciative he was of the Chinese government. In China, the government kept his position at the school where he worked as well as his salary. In the United States, he received both a stipend from the Chinese government and a small “salary” from the U.S. school. According to the College Board and other American sources, the official agreement is that the U.S. schools participating in the Chinese guest teacher program are responsible for providing a partial salary to the guest teacher, and the remainder is subsidized by a stipend from the Chinese government.
After some time, Bin began to tell me how he felt offended by Americans who asked about his opinions on political issues concerning Taiwan and Tibet. Bin saw it as a challenge, and even believed Americans were hostile toward China. I was surprised at what he said. “I think I am blessed here and American people are so kind,” I told Bin. But he never made any comments on what I said.
Every two or three weeks, Bin went to Ohio State University and attended meetings for Chinese teachers like him in Ohio. Bin said that at the meetings they received guidance on their curriculum and help with preparing lesson plans, but Bin never told me who organized these meetings and what kind of curriculum they were asked to teach. However, I noticed that all their teaching was the “good stuff” about China, such as how the Chinese government made great efforts to feed 1.3 billion people, and why Tibet and Taiwan were inseparable parts of China.
According to the College Board, since 2007, more than 1,400 Chinese language and culture teachers have been brought into the K-12 classrooms across the United States through the Chinese guest teacher program. Since 2005, more than 100 Confucius Institutes have opened within American universities. Of the 1,579 Confucius Institutes and classrooms in the world, over 38% are in the United States. This is probably the most insidious infiltration programs operated by a foreign government in the United States, and it has penetrated American schools from K-12 to higher education.
Budget cuts or lack of funding often force American schools to outsource programs such as world languages. Visiting teacher or exchange teacher programs for other languages, such as Spanish, French, Chinese from Taiwan, truly benefit American students, promote international cooperation and share cultural resources globally. However, the Chinese visiting teacher program has a different objective.
Teachers like Bin come to the United States with political, propagandistic missions to both disinform Americans about the reality in China and promote popular support for China, and slowly, but surely, undermine and subvert American democracy. This is a long-term political strategy adopted by Communist China all over the world. China’s penetration in Africa through “economic investments and assistance” is well documented (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240798744_China’s_Economic_and_Political_Penetration_in_Africa).
Also, while working in the Bahamas, I was a witness to how China has “invaded” the nation-island and has it in its grip (http://www.tribune242.com/news/2017/feb/20/insight-chinas-debt-trap-diplomacy/.)
Since this kind of penetration would prove far more difficult and less effective in developed countries such as European countries, or the U.S., China has adopted a different and perhaps more effective method of penetration: through “culture and education.”
Hanban, the operation office of the Chinese government in charge of all Confucius-related programs, has a uniform curriculum for all Chinese teachers. No flexibility is allowed for teachers to present contents about the history of modern China. There is only one single answer for teachers to discuss the political issues about Tibet and Taiwan, human rights issues related to 1989 Tian’enmen Square Massacre and religious freedom in China. The “politically correct” answers are “Tibetans and Taiwanese support the Chinese government and they are part of China;” “No one died in 1989 Tian’enmen Square and the government was forced to dispatch military to the capital because of mobs.” Or, in the best of cases, all the Chinese teachers avoid discussing any of the so-called sensitive topics.
The quality of the guest Chinese teachers should be a concern. While Hanban emphasizes how they rigorously select teachers, the process of selection is not transparent. There is no such thing as background check or professional certification like in the U.S. In fact, the selection of teachers is not merit but Party loyalty based. When I was in China, I applied for such programs organized by Hanban, but never received any reply, because I refused to join the Communist Party. To become a teacher in a Hanban’s program, the candidates are required first and most to be politically reliable, accountable, and credible. Teachers appointed by Hanban must support and help the propaganda of the Chinese government. Otherwise, they will be punished when they return to China.
Bin represents thousands of Chinese teachers who are recruited by the Chinese government to work for the Confucius Institutes or the Confucius Classrooms to “reeducate” the young generations in the United States. In 2009, Li Changchun, then the head of propaganda for the Chinese Communist Party, called Confucius Institutes “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up.” In 2018, the Chinese President Xi Jinpin urged more Confucius Institutes to be established in foreign countries in order to expand China’s global influence.
As Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) remarked, the goal of the Chinese government is to exploit America’s academic freedom to instill in the minds of future American leaders a pro-China viewpoint. “It’s smart. It’s a long-term, patient approach.” …and it is very anti-American.
Bin and his Chinese colleagues represent the Chinese Communist Party. They are not true teachers, as described by Confucius. Confucius said, “A true teacher is one who, keeping the past alive, is also able to understand the present.”
Communist China uses Confucius to sow confusion.
It is high time to tell Chinese Communists to stop tarnishing Confucius’s reputation!
References:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/16/how-china-infiltrated-us-classrooms-216327