The Patriot Post® · Inside Xi Jinping’s Exchange Student Scheme

In political strategy, you have to understand what your adversary wants in order to understand his actions. For all that Communist China has done, you can never accuse it of not being strategically savvy. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited President Donald Trump at the White House last month, and all in all, it seemed like a pleasant time. However, when it comes to the Chinese, one always benefits from being suspicious of what they are doing and why. In a society where control of the populace is paramount, they will never consciously do anything to prevent losing said control. In most cases, they will generally act to acquire more.

At the White House, Xi announced that China is inviting 100,000 American students to study in the nation over five years. For a nation that is currently hosting around 2,000 American students, this is a massive jump in numbers and would likely be a significant investment on China’s part. 

Obviously, there are lots of reasons to be concerned. Many believe these students will be totally indoctrinated into the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its ideals. This is certainly a valid concern, as students will undoubtedly be exposed to all that ideology has to offer, presented cleanly and appealingly. China could use the exchange program to find the most indoctrinated students and use them to infiltrate classified areas à la Glenn Shriver, a former Michigan student who was recruited by Chinese intelligence while studying abroad there and applied with the State Department and CIA to tip off the Chinese.

However, while the indoctrination of American students could help China, that isn’t the main reason for its investment. There are much cheaper ways to produce worldwide Chinese propaganda, and while many of these students could fall in love with the CCP, many more have returned to the States in the past with much criticism of the country. This is not a mission to hypnotize 100,000 students.

Still others are concerned about China’s tendency to hold Americans hostage for little to nothing at all. This is also a valid concern. In 2024, American academic Min Zin was invited to a conference in China but was immediately arrested and is still being held in an undisclosed location. China has detained more than 200 Americans.

Again, this is not the main reason for Xi’s invitation. If some in that number of 100,000 became problematic in the eyes of the party, they would probably be arrested. However, 100,000 is a large figure. China wouldn’t detain all of them, or even a significant portion of them, without risking the fury of a nation that still has a better military. Something like that could genuinely start World War III.

But China does have something massive to gain if its invite is accepted: It can learn virtually everything about each of the 100,000 Americans. It is nearly impossible to visit China and not have your every move tracked by the government. That’s a fairly well-known fact. But the limits of the CCP’s breach of your privacy go much further than just surveillance footage.

It would be very difficult to get by without using WeChat in China. Conventional international messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Signal are blocked in China, so the only option is WeChat, whose servers are known to read any message transmitted through the platform. All information entered into the app is public knowledge to the CCP, regardless of where in the world you are. Even if the content is deleted, it isn’t really gone, as Gao Zhigang learned the hard way after sending a video that the CCP didn’t like. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

On top of that, China requires face scans for many everyday activities. Any online payment requires an ID, as does buying a Chinese SIM card for your phone to protect your American one. Furthermore, at many universities, virtually every security checkpoint requires a face scan to enter.

American travel advisories warn that China can pretty much obtain any information that you input into virtually anything made by them, regardless of where you are in the world. China has even detained people after they sent “offending” messages outside of China.

With all the information and control China would have over 100,000 Americans, many of whom might be hired for government jobs or other careers of national significance, the CCP would gain more chances to breach national security through that intelligence.

For all of these reasons and more, sending thousands of young Americans to China is a horrible idea, and Washington must try its best to block it.