‘The Devil went down to Georgia, he was lookin? for a soul to steal. He was in a bind ’cause he was way behind. He was willing to make a deal.?
? Musician Charlie Daniels
It’s rather sad and unsettling that just as some well-respected American universities are finally ridding their campuses of Chinese influence, the Oxford school district is poised to expand it here by potentially giving the Weiming Education Group a place to build a brick-and-mortar base of operations.
Recently, the University of Chicago and Penn State University announced they’re cutting ties with the Confucius Institute program, the Chinese government’s chief instrument for spreading its propaganda overseas.
The Confucius Institute is basically a Trojan Horse.
Disguised as an innocent language instruction program, the Confucius Institute is, in reality, Beijing’s slickly-packaged way to brainwash foreigners with its twisted, censored and deceptive version of Chinese politics, history and culture.
In 2013, the Chinese spent $275 million on Confucius institutes and classrooms posited on about 1,100 campuses in 120 countries, including 700 primary and secondary schools, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Even Oxford Schools hooked up with the Confucius Institute. Last year, the district received the ?2013 Confucius Classroom of the Year Award,? presented in Beijing. In 2011, the district received $10,000 from the Confucius program.
To its credit, China successfully launched a global propaganda offensive on a scale that not even Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s master of media manipulation, could have ever imagined.
But it appears that offensive is beginning to falter with the loss of two such prestigious American universities.
And more could follow suit.
The American Association of University Professors declared Confucius Institutes ‘function as an arm of the Chinese state? and they’re ‘allowed to ignore academic freedom.? The group recommended universities ‘cease their involvement? with them unless significant changes are made with regard to issues of control, academic freedom and transparency.
I’m glad to see people are finally beginning to wake up and smell the ginseng-flavored Kool-Aid.
I sure wish they would wake up here in Oxford before we sell our community’s soul to the Devil. Make no mistake, that’s exactly what the Chinese government is ? the Devil.
Lies, oppression, censorship, torture and murder are the foundation on which Communist China was built in 1949 and those tools continue to be used in 2014.
Granted, today’s Chinese government has added a healthy dose of capitalism to its nation’s economy and allowed ? yes, allowed ? a growing number of its citizens to become millionaires. But China’s Communist Party did this not because it had a change of heart, but because it wanted to maintain its grip on power and not go the way of the now-defunct Soviet Union.
And so far, it’s worked well.
China’s done much to try to hide its ugly, brutal realities by presenting a carefully-cultivated, modern image designed to make it more palatable to the world ? China Lite, if you will.
But none of this changes the fact that China’s Communist Party continues to rule in a despicable and despotic manner as it persecutes, jails and kills those who dare to criticize or oppose the State’s sadistic ways. The only thing keeping those pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong from being completely crushed is the fact they’re not on the mainland.
Up until now, Oxford’s only been leasing its soul to the Devil as the school district has spent years cozying up to the Chinese and preaching to local residents about how China’s changed, how it wants to be friends with the U.S. and how it’s the new land of economic opportunity.
But I fear the district’s partnership with the Weiming Education Group and the potential building of a dormitory and classrooms for Chinese students and education will constitute the final bill of sale for Oxford’s soul to the Pandemonium of the Far East.
I’ll be perfectly frank, I simply don’t trust the Weiming Education Group. It’s a gut feeling based on the fact that I have no reason to trust or believe anything from a country that repeatedly spys on the United States, steals from us, hacks our computers and relentlessly works to undermine our status on the world stage at every turn.
Granted, unlike the Confucius Institute, which is openly operated and funded by the Chinese government, Weiming promotes itself as ‘the largest private K-12 educational services provider in China.?
But I have a hard time believing Weiming is a purely private venture devoid of any government influence or agenda.
Unlike the U.S. where there are often clear distinctions between that which is public and that which is private, the dividing line between public and private is extremely blurry in China because the State has its tentacles in everything.
There is very little, if anything, that is allowed to happen or operate in China without the government’s consent and/or control in some form or another. You may not always see the strings, but they’re there.
On the surface, the Weiming Education Group sounds very appealing and says all the right things to warm the cockles of the American heart.
Its website proclaims its educational philosophy is one of ‘academic freedom and inclusiveness.? Weiming lists one of its lofty goals as the promotion of ‘global peace and understanding one student at a time.?
But how do we know any of this is really true? How do we know it’s not just some slick sales pitch?
How do we know for sure that Weiming is not another Trojan Horse like the Confucius Institute?
How do we know Weiming will not spread government-sanctioned Chinese propaganda on American soil?
Yes, Weiming is gung ho about teaching the three R’s, but how will they handle it if the three T’s ? Tiananmen, Tibet and Taiwan ? come up in the classroom?
I have a close friend who’s visited and worked in China on a number of occasions because his company does business with the Chinese. I asked him what he thought about my suspicions regarding Weiming.
‘It would be foolhardy at best to believe that the Weiming Education Group is not influenced by the Chinese government, which, in turn, will do its best to influence the minds of children attending Oxford Schools,? he replied.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take Weiming at its word.
I’m not ready to take anything on faith that comes from a nation whose government’s ultimate goal is to supplant the U.S. as the dominant power in the world.
I’m also not ready to help them do it.
Some folks are perfectly comfortable being dupes and mouthpieces for dictatorial regimes just like American aviator Charles Lindbergh was for the Nazis in the 1930s. I’m not.
Until the government in Beijing falls on its own or is overthrown, China remains an enemy of the U.S. and a powerful threat to everyone who truly values the rights and freedoms of the individual.
If Communist China is ever allowed to dominate the globe, the light of liberty will surely be snuffed out.
But hey, at least our children will know how to speak the language of their new masters thanks to Oxford Schools.