Rep. Miller-Meeks Statement on Chinese Communist Party Funding in Iowa Public School

WASHINGTON DC — Today, Iowa Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) released the following statement after concerning reports of Chinese Communist Party funding of trips for Muscatine Community School District students:

“The Chinese Communist Party’s well-known efforts to infiltrate the U.S. are a massive national security concern. Whether it is buying up farmland in Iowa, spying on Americans or protecting Chinese ownership of TikTok, the long arm of the CCP apparatus will continue their attempts to infiltrate and interfere with U.S. national security interests.

Muscatine has a well-known historical and cultural connection with China and Xi Jinping prior to his becoming President of China. And U.S. engagement with China is necessary as the CCP continues its aggressive, globalist pursuits.

However, the CCP’s funding of Muscatine Community School District trips to China is also a national security concern and a reminder of the CCP’s widespread influence across the U.S. Without appropriate national security briefings, school systems may be unaware of CCP tactics and the threat they pose to students and U.S. national security. School trips funded by the CCP are a “bridge too far” in cultural exchange.

The entreaties of the CCP into educational systems is not new. We see it through influence campaigns in the funding of Confucius Institutes on college campuses, which Congress addressed legislatively. 

This revelation is a sobering reminder that - no matter whether it is in Iowa or the Indo Pacific – the threat of the CCP is an issue for all Americans.”