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A sweeping new investigation by the parents’ rights group Defending Education, titled Little Red Classrooms: Young Envoys Scholarship Program, has exposed the full scope of Beijing’s latest education influence operation inside the United States — and New York is not exempt.
At least 83 universities and 26 K-12 schools across 30 states have participated in China’s Young Envoys Scholarship (YES) program. Among them: Columbia University, whose delegation attended a trip organized by the China-United States Exchange Foundation — an organization with well-documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front influence apparatus.
In November 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping personally invited 50,000 U.S. students to study in China over five years under the YES program. It is run by the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) — an organization that states on its Chinese-language website that it is guided by “Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought” and Xi Jinping Thought, and that it “always adhere[s] to the leadership of the Party.”
U.S. lawmakers and intelligence assessments have identified CEAIE as part of China’s “United Front” system — an international influence operation designed to co-opt and neutralize opposition to CCP policy. CEAIE’s president, Liu Limin, is the former Vice Minister of Education of China and a current member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the highest-ranking entity overseeing United Front work.
Columbia University’s delegation attended a trip organized by the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) — flagged by congressional investigators and U.S. intelligence for its United Front ties. The Defending Education report documents Columbia as among the first U.S. university delegations to China under the YES umbrella in 2024.
New York is not alone in the broader Northeast corridor. The program has documented participation across institutions in 30 states, with university delegations visiting CCP-controlled institutions, United Front-linked bodies, and in some cases, the politically sensitive Xinjiang region — where the U.S. government has formally determined China is committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims. Visiting students from a Chicago high school were taken on curated Xinjiang tours featuring calligraphy and dance classes while the atrocities unfolded around them.
CEAIE effectively serves as a successor to the shuttered Confucius Institutes — offering fully funded trips and programming that present a carefully curated, regime-friendly version of China to American students. As Defending Education notes, participants often return with glowing testimonials that serve Beijing’s propaganda machine. “I am a China fan,” one high school student said after participating. “President Xi Jinping’s message is very heartwarming,” said another.
China’s state media publishes these quotes prominently. The U.S. government has described such content as propaganda.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), Chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, warned school leaders in 2025 that “student trips to China, funded by CCP-affiliated organizations, serve as propaganda and influence operations rather than genuine cultural exchanges.” He specifically noted that CEAIE has been “publicly identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as CCP front groups tasked with advancing Beijing’s United Front work.”
“These aren’t just cultural trips,” Reagan Dugan, director of Defending Education’s higher education initiative, told Fox News Digital. “They’re an integral part of China’s broader soft power strategy aimed at infiltrating America’s classrooms. Disclosure requirements need to catch up. American students and families deserve to know if their school is partnering with a CCP operation.”
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