Educational partnerships between Chicago-area public schools and Chinese institutions are drawing renewed scrutiny after students and school administrators attended events at China’s consulate and at least one Chicago school signed a formal cooperation agreement with a Chinese high school whose governing plan emphasizes Communist Party leadership and ideological education.
Natalie Winters, a White House correspondent and co-host of War Room, reported Sept. 2 that the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago was cultivating what she characterized as a “pro-China force” through student exchanges, cultural programs and school-to-school agreements. Her report cited Chinese government and Chinese-language sources detailing several of the programs.
On Feb. 2, students and administrators from Taft High School, Lincoln Park High School and George Westinghouse College Prep attended a Chinese New Year event at the consulate connected to China’s Young Envoys Scholarship, or YES, program, according to both the Chinese Consulate and Chicago-based Sing Tao Daily. The consulate said more than 90 people attended.
At the event, Deputy Consul General Zhang Yiqi encouraged schools to expand exchanges and teaching cooperation, particularly in K-12 STEM programs. According to Sing Tao, Zhang said the younger generation was becoming a new “pro-China force” and called for the list of educational cooperation projects to grow “longer and longer.”
The Chinese Consulate presented the program differently, saying the exchanges allow young Americans to learn Chinese culture, develop friendships and become a new generation of “envoys” for China-U.S. relations. The consulate said more than 40,000 American youths had traveled to China under President Xi Jinping’s 2023 initiative to invite 50,000 young Americans for exchange and study over five years.
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Taft agreement extends beyond student exchanges
The relationship goes beyond cultural events at Taft High School, where more than 400 students study Mandarin.
On Dec. 1, 2025, Taft Principal Ryan Glowacz and teacher Chaoyi Li signed a “School Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding” with Shandong Jinan No. 9 High School during a ceremony inside the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, according to local newspaper Nadig Newspapers. Taft hopes to send about 20 students to China in 2027.
Glowacz defended the partnership as consistent with Taft’s international focus, telling the newspaper that the agreement made sense because the school’s mission as an International Baccalaureate institution is to “educate global citizens to create a better world.”
Jinan No. 9 High School’s own account describes a potentially broader relationship. The school said the agreement established an “institutionalized platform” for joint curriculum development, teacher training, reciprocal visits by teachers and students, and cultural programs. Its principal, Du Haifeng, is also deputy secretary of the school’s Communist Party committee.
The Chinese school’s publicly available 2025-26 work plan says its operations are guided by “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.” Its first major objective is strengthening Communist Party leadership, including political study by teachers, Party-building activities and expansion of ideological and political education.
The plan also states that the school should maintain responsibility for ideological work, monitor public opinion and strengthen its ability to guide responses to public sentiment. It calls for expanding what it describes as the school’s “ideological-political classroom” and says religious activity should be prevented from spreading on campus.
That contrast — between a U.S. school describing the relationship as global learning and its Chinese partner explicitly incorporating Communist Party ideology into school governance — has fueled questions about how much of the Chinese institution’s curriculum, teaching methods or educational materials could become part of the cooperation.
The agreement itself has not been publicly released in full.
The Dec. 1 ceremony was also substantially larger than the Taft agreement alone. The Chinese Consulate said more than 100 students, parents, teachers and school leaders attended and that 16 Chinese and American primary and secondary schools signed inter-school memorandums.
Before the agreements were signed, Consul General Wang Baodong addressed attendees about what the consulate called the “major achievements” of the Fourth Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Central Committee. He also encouraged American students to participate in Xi’s 50,000-youth exchange initiative.
Confucius Institute closures shifted attention to other partnerships
The Chicago relationships are drawing attention in part because they follow years of controversy over Confucius Institutes, Chinese government-backed language and cultural programs that once operated widely on U.S. university campuses and also supported programs in K-12 schools.
A 2019 U.S. Government Accountability Office review found 96 Confucius Institutes at American colleges and universities across 44 states and the District of Columbia. The institutes were partially funded by Hanban, an organization affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education. GAO said researchers and government officials had raised concerns about potential Chinese influence, although officials at universities examined by GAO said their institutions retained control over their programs.
Their numbers subsequently collapsed. In a 2023 report, the GAO found the number of Confucius Institutes at U.S. colleges and universities had fallen from roughly 100 in 2019 to fewer than five after Congress restricted certain federal funding for institutions that maintained them.
But a 2022 investigation by the National Association of Scholars found that some relationships survived under different structures. Of 118 U.S. Confucius Institutes identified by the organization, 104 had closed or were closing, while at least 64 colleges and universities had established similar programs under different names or maintained close relationships with their former Chinese partners.
Federal scrutiny has continued. The House passed the DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act on May 7, 2025, by a 266-153 vote. The measure would make universities with certain relationships to Confucius Institutes, China’s Thousand Talents Program or designated Chinese entities ineligible for Department of Homeland Security funding unless they terminate those relationships. As of the House calendar published Sept. 1, 2026, the bill remained referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The Chicago programs are not Confucius Institutes, and the evidence reviewed does not establish that the partnerships are replacements for them. They do, however, demonstrate that formal educational cooperation between Chinese institutions and American schools continues through new channels, including student travel, teacher exchanges, curriculum cooperation and consulate-sponsored programs.
Supporters argue those exchanges can expose American students to Chinese language and culture at a time when relatively few Americans study in China. Critics say greater transparency is needed when partnerships involve institutions whose educational systems are explicitly governed by Communist Party ideology.