Scope of CCP-backed Chinese exchange program inside American schools uncovered in sweeping report

FIRST ON FOX: Dozens of American colleges, high schools, middle schools and elementary schools have taken part in a program launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping and run by an agency dedicated to promoting “Marxism-Leninism,” a new report published by the parents’ rights group Defending Education found. 

At least 83 universities and 26 K-12 schools across 30 states have participated in Beijing’s Young Envoys Scholarship, an exchange program which the Chinese Communist Party says is designed to improve relations with the United States, according to the report. Critics, however, maintain that Chinese exchange programs serve a political function, allowing the CCP to curate manicured experiences to unduly sway American perceptions of China.

The program’s reach underscores how Beijing uses educational exchanges to build influence with American students even as U.S. officials, the president among them, are increasingly scrutinizing CCP efforts to shape public opinion and gain footholds in institutions. The new Defending Education report raises questions about what students are shown in China, who shapes those experiences and whether schools and families fully understand the political implications of participation.

If reactions from students and teachers who attend Young Envoys Scholarship trips are anything to go by, the Chinese government program has been successful in winning hearts and minds.

“I am a China fan,” one high school student said after participating in a Young Envoys Scholarship program.

“President Xi Jinping’s message is very heartwarming,” another student stated. A teacher said that she “strongly agreed with President Xi Jinping’s message that ‘the future is in the hands of the youth.'”

China makes use of these quotes, as well as others from similar trips, in articles produced by its state-run media organizations, which the United States government and some academics have described as “propaganda.”

Chinese exchange programs are already on the radar of congressional China hawks.

“It is a tool used by the CCP to expand its influence over the American public,” House Select Committee on the CCP Chairman John Moolenaar wrote in August 2025, addressing a school district in Maryland participating in an exchange program. “American youths should not be used as propaganda tools of the Chinese government to legitimize its authoritarian control or assert its undue influence on the American population.”