Chen, a board member, supported implementing the Confucius Classroom initiative.
The campaign of a California Democrat for the House has been dogged by attacks over his prior support for a federally financed initiative to introduce Chinese language and culture to American schoolchildren in grades K-12. It has been speculated that the program is linked to the propaganda efforts of the Chinese Communist Party.
During his time on the Hacienda La Puente school board, Democratic congressional candidate Jay Chen voted in favor of implementing the Confucius Classroom curriculum.
The Chinese government funds a program that sends Chinese educators and classroom supplies to American elementary, middle, and high schools. In conjunction with Confucius Institutes, which the U.S. Department of State has described as “organizations that strive to enhance Beijing’s multidimensional propaganda activities” on campus, this initiative is being offered.
A recall movement was launched in 2011 to remove Chen and four other board members for their support of implementing the Confucius Classroom curriculum, as reported by the Los Angeles Daily News. According to the site, Chen was reported as adding, “I don’t see anything malevolent about employing literature from China.” “Nearly all of the supplies we use originate from China.”
According to the paper, Chen made comments regarding the recall effort being motivated by “racial feeling,” the China-funded “courses not being about politics,” and “not teaching anything about Communism or Chinese methods of administration.”
Republican congressional candidate in California’s 48th district, Rep. Michelle Steel Steel, tweeted a social media thread last week criticizing Chen for his support of the program and said he won’t oppose Confucius Institutes.
Steel criticized Chen in another tweet for “his addiction to dubbing Confucius Institutes ‘Chinese cultural endeavors,’ which is EXACTLY what the CCP wants.” Disgustingly, in 2022, he continues to defend a show that has been revealed as Chinese propaganda.
The spokesperson for Chen’s campaign Lance Trover questioned why Chen is “such an enthusiastic proponent of permitting them into our educational system” when there is bipartisan agreement to remove such programs from schools. Two news releases came from the Steel campaign attacking Chen for his stance on the Confucius Classroom.
A spokesperson for Chen’s campaign, Lindsay Barnes, said that Steel’s criticism of Chen was a “desperate attempt to hang onto power and detract from her awful record” and that Chen was “aligned” with the State Department’s view on the China-funded educational programs.
Barnes asserts that Steel’s use of “False information that has contributed to an uptick in violence against Asian Americans has also been used to smear a member of the United States Naval Reserves.
American of Taiwanese ancestry and Top Secret clearance holder Lt. Commander Jay Chen has firsthand experience with China’s threat. Ten years ago, the United States government, including the State Department, strongly backed Confucius Classroom initiatives. Despite the fact that the State Department has reassessed these programs due to the Chinese Communist Party’s growing enmity toward the United States and its democratic allies, Lt. Commander Chen continues to defend his original viewpoint.”
Chen sent an email to his supporters accusing the Korean-American congresswoman of “anti-Asian racism” because Steel had used the program Confucius Classroom to prove his support for it.
Despite having the backing of Planned Parenthood, the Newseum Action Fund, and the California Democratic Party, Chen has been criticized for remarks he made at a meet and greet at the Congregation B’nai Tzedek synagogue in Fountain Valley, California on April 7 that seemed to make fun of Steel’s accent.
“Yes, she had another town hall meeting not too long ago. And it’s not like a piece of cake, either. There has been a full transcription,” As expressed by Chen’s remark at the time. “If you want to understand what she’s saying, an interpreter would be helpful. We can all benefit from her sharing more of her thoughts and feelings with us.”
Twenty-three prominent neighborhood residents felt compelled to write a letter to Chen requesting an explanation for his remarks.
In a statement, Steel said, “I’ve faced racist slurs my whole life, but it won’t stop me from boldly voicing my voice.” All immigrants are vulnerable to the assaults my opponent uses against me because my accent is my tale.
The Senate enacted the Concerns Over Nations Funding University Campus Institutes in the United States (CONFUCIUS) Act in March 2021 with the goal of reducing China’s dominance over U.S. educational institutions. A similar bill was introduced in the House but was never put to the vote. The measure would have prohibited federal funding to schools with Confucius Institutes unless such schools strictly regulated the hiring and teaching practices of all Confucius Institutes faculty members.
In addition to safeguarding “academic freedom” in U.S. institutions, the law requested that “foreign legislation on any campus” be prohibited.