Top U.S. high school received $1 million from Chinese government-linked organizations

OAN Deven Berryhill
UPDATED 6:30 PM PT – Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Sources claim that Thomas Jefferson High School, Fairfax County in Virginia, has been flagged for receiving $1 million from Chinese Military-related entities.

TJPF’s Thomas Jefferson Partnership Fund received $250,000 from the Ameson Education and Cultural Exchange Foundation in 2015 and 2016. TJPF, a non-profit organisation that raised funds to support the school’s science & technology department. Parents Defending Education estimates that the Virginia high school was awarded between $100,000 to $500,000 in 2018.

Parents Defending Education was founded in America by Parents Defending Education, according to its website. It is a grassroots American organization that aims to reclaim schools from activist impose harmful agendas. Recently, it was reported that DFE had obtained TJPF’s campaign donor list. DFE claimed that three Chinese-linked organisations had been identified on the list and that they have contributed hundreds of thousands to TJPF’s campaign. Parents Defending Education revealed that the organizations were linked to Chinese government interests.

According to some reports, Ameson’s founding and vice-chairman, Sean Zhang had ties with China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD). According to the 2018 U.S. -China Economic And Security Review Commission staff research report, said that the UFWD was founded to address this issue. “co-opt and neutralize” Any opposition to China’s Communist Party.

From 2013 to 2014, Thomas Jefferson High School was also known to have had an ongoing relationship with Tsinghua University High School. The PDE also revealed that Tsinghua University High School in Beijing had ties with Thomas Jefferson High School from 2013 to 2014.

The Higher Education Act was created by the U.S. government during the Trump Administration. It established a lot of accountability for American universities that receive funding exceeding $250,000.

Nicole Neily, President of PDE and the founder, has recently mentioned other cases in which U.S. colleges were infiltrated into by Chinese students in what was called “Confucius Institutes.” Some critics of Confucius Institutes voice concerns about their use as an instrument for military and industrial espionage. 

Neily posted Tuesday that the Confucius Institutes were being monitored only at the university level.

“The scandal at Thomas Jefferson High School highlights the urgency of putting such controls in place in all levels of the American education system. Without doubt, similar problems are occurring in numerous other schools across the country, and it poses an acute threat to America’s national security,” According to the president of PDE.