Harvard has trained many Chinese communist officials, they call it their party school

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Chun Han Wong, The Wall Street Journal 6 min Read 01 Jun 2025, 03:32 pm Ist Harvard, who started on Thursday, has long been popular with rising stars in Chinese politics. Photo: Rick Friedman/AFP/Getty Images Summary The University’s Kennedy School of Government has long been favored by party councils seeking career connections. American schools and especially a prestigious institution-have long offered upcoming Chinese officials to study a place to study management, a practice that the Trump administration can end with a new attempt to keep out what it says is Chinese students with the Communist Party ties. For decades, the party has sent thousands of mid-career and senior bureaucrats to pursue executive training and postgraduate studies on US campuses, with Harvard University a prestigious destination described by some in China as the top “part school” outside the country. Alumni of such programs include a former vice president and Chinese leader XI Jinping’s top negotiator in trade conversations with the first Trump administration. In an effort announced by the Foreign Minister on Wednesday, US authorities will tighten criteria for visa applications from China and aggressively recall “Chinese students visas, including those with connections with the Chinese Communist Party or to study in critical areas.” The statement did not say how the Trump administration would judge the Communist Party ties or what degree of connection would lead to the recall of visas. In China, party membership is commonly seen as useful for career promotion – in government and the private sector – and is usually a prerequisite for officials seeking high office. Mao Ning, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Thursday that the US had seriously damaged the legal rights and interests of Chinese students. ” The alleged ties with the Communist Party emerged as a leading attack in President Trump’s pressure campaign against Harvard. The Trump administration said on May 22 that it recalls Harvard’s authority to enroll foreign students, accusing the University of the cooperation with the Communist Party, although it later gave 30 days to dispute the decision. Harvard has filed a lawsuit to retain his foreign entries. Harvard did not respond to questions for this article. Some US politicians have said that China’s Communist Party is harvesting expertise in the American Academy to ultimately harm US interests. The Trump administration cited this criticism, among other things, to support its efforts to force a major cultural shift in American colleges, which regard many conservatives as bastions of liberal and leftist ideology. US universities have played leading roles in the formation of China’s overseas training programs for officials in the middle of the career, who began to arrange Beijing in the 1990s as a way to improve management by exposing its bureaucrats to Western public policy ideas and practices. Other American colleges that offered executive training to Chinese officials include Syracuse, Stanford, the University of Maryland and Rutgers, according to publicity material and other revelations. For example, Syracuse’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs helped to set up postgraduate programs in public administration at Chinese universities in the early 2000s. In addition to the US, Chinese officials have also stripped to leading universities in countries, including Singapore, Japan and British Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, is one of the most popular, which has trained thousands of Chinese officials since the early 1990s, mostly by postgraduate programs known as the ‘Burgemies’. Li Yuanchao, who was shown as Vice President of China during his time, went to Harvard Kennedy School in 2002. Harvard enjoys an excellent reputation among Chinese officials thanks to the record in the training of high -fly bureaucrats who won the senior government roles and, in some cases, joined the party’s elite politically. Some observers called Harvard a de facto ‘party school’, as the party’s own training academies are known for promising bureaucrats. ‘If we arranged the’ Overseas Party schools ‘of the Chinese Communist Party, the one who is meritorious should be the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University in the US,’ said a 2014 comment published by Shanghai Observer, an online platform run by the city’s main party newspaper. Li Yuanchao, a former Politburo member and the Vice President of China from 2013 to 2018, attended a training program in the middle of the career in 2002. At the time, he was the party boss of the Central City of Nanjing, and his first class at school focused on a crisis management, he remembered in a speech when he was to Harvard in 2009. a mass poisoning in the city that killed dozens of people. “More than 200 lives were saved on time, and the suspect was imprisoned within 36 hours. We were praised by the locals and the central government for this,” Li said in the 2009 speech. “So, when I come here again today, I want to say,” Thank you, Harvard! ” Liu he, a retired vice-prime minister who was the best trade negotiator of XI in discussions with the First Trump administration, obtained a master’s degree in public administration in 1995 of Harvard Kennedy School. Current Politburo member and senior legislature Li Hongzhong attended a short-term program with a short-term program in Harvard in 1999. The then Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen attended Harvard in the 1990s. While Harvard Kennedy School offered Chinese students in the 1980s, Beijing began sending officials for the middle of the career in the subsequent decade in the subsequent decade, according to Chinese media reports. One program, launched in 1998, offered fellowships and executive training courses to about 20 senior officials annually. In the early 2000s, Harvard launched another program, ‘China’s Leaders in Development’, through which Chinese officials would undergo a week -long training course between Harvard and Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua university. The program is designed to help “prepare senior local and central Chinese government officials to more effectively address the ongoing challenges of China’s national reforms”, according to Harvard. According to newsletters published by Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the Harvard segment of the program offered classes on topics, including public management, economic development and social policy, as well as visits to US government organizations. Some children from the top officials of the Communist Party also attended Harvard for undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Xi’s daughter, Mingze, attended Harvard as an undergraduate student in the early 2010s under a supposed name, although Harvard administrators and some faculty members were aware of her identity. She enrolled while her father was the vice president and leader in China and graduated after he took power. Other Harvard alumni with elite backgrounds are Alvin Jiang, a grandson of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, as well as above Guagua, the son of the former Politburo member above Xilai. Bo Guagua, son of former politician over Xilai, steps off the stage after receiving his Harvard masters degree in 2012. Above Guagua attended the Harvard Kennedy School from 2010 to 2012 and obtained a master’s degree in public policy. His father was cleared in 2012 and was sentenced to life imprisonment the following year on charges of bribery, eclipse and abuse of power. Harvard’s China Connections also helped access some of its leading scholars in Beijing. Graham Allison, a former Dean of Harvard Kennedy School, has been meetings with XI and Chinese Foreign Minister, during which the professor spoke about his views on the US-China’s relationship. Write to Chun Han Wong on [email protected], catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live currency. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #China Read Next Story