For more than a decade, U.S. intelligence agencies have warned that Confucius Institutes and related Chinese language-promotion programs operate as influence platforms for the Chinese Communist Party.

Beijing has treated international Chinese-language education as a strategic priority, personally emphasized by Xi Jinping, who repeatedly links global language expansion to China’s ability to “shape international opinion” and “tell China’s story well.”

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That strategy was on full display at the 2025 World Chinese Language Conference in Beijing, the CCP’s premier global language-promotion gathering run directly by China’s Ministry of Education.

And despite years of scrutiny in Washington, Americans attended.

Chinese state reporting and institutional disclosures confirm that U.S. education figures, charter-school leadership, Confucius Institute personnel, and American students studying in Chinese state institutions were all present and prominently featured. Chinese state media hailed the event as a large success, representative of China’s expanding education influence with 15 new Confucius Institutes, along with one Confucius Classroom, established this year.

“The new institutions have been set up in 14 countries, including Algeria and Guinea-Bissau, marking the first presence of Confucius Institutes in these two African nations,” explained China Daily.

And Americans play a key role in giving these institutes a facade or credibility.

Chinese conference write-ups identify several U.S. participants tied to American school systems, charter networks, and university-based Confucius Institutes.

• Utah State Board of Education Representative

Chinese forum materials identify Lian Xinmei as a participant representing Utah’s Mandarin immersion program. Utah’s statewide immersion model has thousands of students and has long been cited by Beijing as a showcase for U.S.–China educational cooperation.

• Co-Founder of International Leadership of Texas (ILTexas)

Beijing’s education forums also listed Yang Yang, co-founder of ILTexas, one of the largest charter networks in the United States with mandatory Chinese language instruction. Chinese organizers highlighted her presence as evidence that U.S. K-12 institutions remain tied into China’s language-promotion framework.

• U.S. Confucius Institute Director

Paul Manfredi, the American-side director of the Washington State Confucius Institute and a professor at Pacific Lutheran University, attended and appeared in photographs with Chinese officials. His Confucius Institute received formal recognition during the conference.

• American Students Studying in Chinese State Universities

Chinese media spotlighted two Americans participating as enrolled students inside Chinese institutions:

— Nicholas Goldring, an American master’s student at Beijing Language and Culture University, who delivered a Chinese-language speech during the conference’s opening ceremony.

— Daniel Broadwater, a U.S. graduate student at Beijing Normal University, profiled by China Daily as one of the event’s American participants.

The United Kingdom had its own contingent.

A detailed report from Newcastle University confirms that the university’s Confucius Institute sent Dr. Andrew M. Law to Beijing for the conference. But the trip was not limited to Newcastle alone.

Newcastle’s release notes that Dr. Law traveled through a program organized by Xiamen University, one of China’s leading Confucius Institute partner institutions — and the Chinese partner for multiple UK Confucius Institutes, including Newcastle University, Cardiff University, and University of Southampton.

These universities were all represented through shared institutional programming, group meetings, and coordinated events held for Confucius Institute staff during the conference week.

While Americans and Brits took part, Beijing used the conference to unveil new figures illustrating how large its international education infrastructure has become: Chinese is now embedded in the national education systems of 86 countries.

This includes curriculum integration approved at government level. Over 200 million people abroad are currently studying Chinese, a figure Chinese authorities highlighted as evidence of global growth.

These numbers show a post-Confucius Institute model that is even larger and more institutionalized. Instead of relying solely on university partnerships, Beijing now controls global credentialing exams, youth competitions, digital teaching platforms, and curriculum frameworks that feed directly into foreign school systems.

The 2025 World Chinese Language Conference reveals that, despite public scrutiny, American school officials, U.S. Confucius Institute personnel, and students tied to American education programs are still engaging directly with Beijing’s language-influence machinery.

British universities are doing the same.

And Beijing’s global system — championed by Xi Jinping — is expanding, not retreating.

The United States may be shutting down Confucius Institutes.

China has already built something much larger to replace them.

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