Jay Chen, a Dem running from California for Congress, fought to bring Chinese Communist Party teaching materials to public school districts in his district while he was a member of a school board. Chen was the leader of the effort to bring the Confucius Classroom into the hands of the children he represented in 2010, which led to the recall of four members from the Hacienda la Puente Unified Schools District.
The CCP’s Ministry of Education funds Confucius Classroom programs in an effort to promote Chinese culture and language in American K-12 schools.
The Confucius Institute was designated by Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State at the time. He stated that the Confucius Institute “promotes Beijing’s global propaganda campaign and malign influence campaign.”
According to the Los Angeles Daily News Chen and his fellow school board members Norman Hsu (Anita Perez) and Joseph Chang were subject to recall efforts in 2011. They were accused of supporting Chinese propaganda. John Kramar, the former superintendent of the school district, stated that the Chinese government was paying the bill and providing the books.
Chen disagreed and stated that he didn’t see anything sinister in using books from China. In fact, almost everything we use is made in China. He also claimed there was a racist sentiment behind opposition to CCP propaganda tools in American classrooms.
Chen continued to attribute racial motivations to the opponents of the program instead of the fact the programs’ purpose is to subjugate American society.
After voting 4-1 for CCP propaganda in classrooms and receiving backlash from parents, the school district reversed their decision.
Chen, now a candidate for Congress is increasing his support for the agitprop and fundraising from his time as a member of the school board.
Chen, a Korean American congresswoman, accused Steel of focusing on Chen’s advocacy for “CCP schools.” Chen also denied that Confucius Classrooms had any ties to the CCP in an e-mail campaign.
Lance Trover, Steel spokesperson, stated that there is broad bipartisan consensus that Confucius Institutes were an indoctrination initiative funded by the Chinese Communist Party. Jay Chen opted to support these indoctrination attempts rather than condemn them.
Steel pulled off an upset in 2020 by flipping a blue district to red. Chen will run in a state where President Joe Biden is experiencing a dramatic drop.
