Because of the DESIST Act, the DOD is now prohibited from establishing JROTC programs at any “educational institution owned, operated, or controlled” by organizations linked to the PRC, CCP, or PLA.
Introduced by Senator Ted Cruz in July 2023, the DESIST Act was part of the NDAAA for FY 2024 that has just been signed into law by President Biden.
Guide to the acronyms:
DESIST Act = Deterring Egregious State Infiltration of Schools’ Training Act
DOD = Department of Defense
JRTOC = Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps
PRC = People’s Republic of China
CCP = Chinese Communist Party
PLA = People’s Liberation Army
NDAA = National Defense Authorization Act
FY = fiscal year
After the DESIST Act was signed into law, Cruz said: “The Chinese Communist Party uses censorship and propaganda to with the goal of controlling what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think. The CCP has broadly sought to infiltrate American schools, including high schools and upper education. I have fought against that influence for years, including ensuring that Confucius Institutes were denied DOD funds and closed. The DESIST Act will further protect our students.”
A few years ago, Andrew Arthur reported that “Chinese Investors Bought K-12 Private Schools in the United States” (Center for Immigration Studies, May 23, 2020). One of his sources was an article in the CCP propaganda outlet China Daily, which reported various school-system purchases, including the fact that “Primavera Capital, a China-based private equity firm, paid about $500 million for the Stratford School system, which operates schools throughout California.” (One of its campuses, in Milpitas, California, is shown above.)
According to the stratfordschools.com website, “Spring Education Group is controlled by Primavera Holdings Limited, an investment firm (together with its affiliates) principally based in Hong Kong with operations in China, Singapore, and the United States, that is itself owned by Chinese persons residing in Hong Kong.”
