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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Chinese Companies Buy up UK Private Schools, Sparking Fears of CCP Influence

    Chinese companies have bought up 17 U.K. private schools in the United Kingdom in recent years, sparking fears of expanding Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in the country as the schools struggle financially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, British media reported.


    "Hundreds of independent schools left in dire financial straits by the coronavirus pandemic are being targeted by Chinese investors," the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported at the weekend.


    Some of the companies are run by high-ranking members of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, and "seek to expand their influence over Britain's education system," the report said.


    According to an investigation by the paper, nine of the 17 schools under Chinese control are owned by companies controlled by Chinese entrepreneurs who are also members of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a body which maintains close ties between private sector wealth and the ruling party.


    Private schools have been hard-hit by the pandemic, with plummeting enrollments and falling fees as students are sent home for distance-learning, the report said.


    Before the pandemic, Bright Scholar -- a company owned by the daughter of Chinese property magnate Yang Guoqiang -- had already invested in several schools, including Bournemouth Collegiate School and St Michael's School in Llanelli, Carmarthanshire, the paper said.


    Bedstone College in Shropshire and Ipswich High School are owned by London-based asset manager London & Oxford Group, which in turn is backed by China's Wanda Group conglomerate.


    Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School in Norfolk, attended by Princess Diana, was acquired by the Confucius International Education Group in 2015.


    Ray Global Education, which owns two U.K.-based private schools, says the acquisitions were a part of its "Global Campus" project that seeks to promote the CCP's Belt & Road infrastructure and global influence initiative in the global education sector.


    The company's president Hu Jing told Chinese state-run media in 2019 that he runs the business in accordance with "political laws, educational laws, and economic laws."


    "No matter how international the school is, it is still fundamentally a Chinese school, and it must pay close heed to the political environment," Hu told journalists.


    When his company set up a school in Shanghai, the first thing it did was to set up a CCP committee and choose a party secretary, he said.


    British schools a weak link


    Wang Jianhong, spokesman for the U.S.-based rights group Humanitarian China, said she was surprised at the sheer scale of Chinese acquisitions in the U.K. private education sector.


    "British private schools are a weak link, because there is a need for investment, and the CCP is taking advantage of that," Wang told RFA.


    "There is little awareness of CCP infiltration," said Wang, who lived in the U.K. for more than a decade.


    Wang said any Chinese company investing in the sector would definitely need the backing of the CCP.


    "The CCP’s investment in British private education has been on the increase ... and there is definitely a CCP background to these companies: how would ordinary Chinese companies manage to buy up U.K. private schools?" she said.


    "Compulsory education providers in the U.K. are now owned by enterprises controlled by the CCP, and the worry now is that its ideology will affect what is being taught there," Wang said.


    She said a current review of Confucius Institutes in the U.K. wouldn't be enough to curb Beijing's influence.


    "Even if you shut down the Confucius Institute, the CCP has other ways in, including the acquisition of private schools," Wang said. "I don't think Western countries have yet realized the extent of the CCP's involvement here."


    'No idea how to resist'


    U.K.-based author Ma Jian said the U.K. government was failing to perceive the risk in allowing such takeovers.


    "These British politicians really are idiots," Ma told RFA. "China is using their economy to gain a political voice, but they have no idea how to resist them."


    He said U.K. educational institutions also have a huge portfolio of investments in China.


    "The U.K. has turned itself into a trading outpost of China, not just in terms of business, economy and trade, but also in terms of culture," Ma said. "[U.K.] universities, research institutes, secondary and primary schools have invested a lot of money in China."


    He said the acquisition of U.K. private schools in entirely in keeping with China's bid to expand CCP influence around the world under general secretary Xi Jinping.


    "This is all about targeting the next generation, educationally speaking," Ma said.


    An employee of a Shanghai-based education-sector investment company, who gave only a nickname An, said there are also strong economic reasons for Chinese companies to be interested in the private education sector in the U.K.


    The Hurun Research Institute reported in 2018 that more than 80 percent of China's wealthiest families plan to send their children to overseas schools, with nearly one third saying they would choose schools in the U.K.


    "British brands are also particularly attractive to Chinese parents, who think about the aristocratic British accent and lifestyle," An told RFA.


    According to a 2020 report from the Independent Schools Council (ISC), China has sent more students to private U.K. schools than any other country, a total of 10,864 at the time of the survey.


    According to An, a weaker, post-Brexit pound and strong government support are also attractive to Chinese investors and parents alike.


    ISC chair Barnaby Lenon told the Times Educational Supplement in 2019 that people should be “jolly pleased” that Chinese investors were buying up U.K. private schools.


    "This obviously is the salvation of a small number of these schools. It’s a good thing for those schools because it means they can remain viable," Lenon said.


    Chinese Companies Buy up UK Private Schools, Sparking Fears of CCP Influence — Radio Free Asia

  2. #2
    . Neverna's Avatar
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    Knee how.

  3. #3
    Member Wakey's Avatar
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    For once this seems fair. British have set up dozens of schools in China and many more in Hong Kong.

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat jabir's Avatar
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    Farage was twittering on about this a few weeks ago.

    No surprise here, western education is just one on a long list of enemy weak spots to infiltrate.

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
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    I'm not sure I see anything too sinister in this.

    In Canada the Chinese are investing heavily in old age facilities. No one seems too concerned. Richmond, a city adjacent to Vancouver is probably 70 percent Chinese and at one point they were conducting city council meetings exclusively in Mandarin. That did cause a serious outcry.

    I guess all these developments are a sign of today's reality.
    A true diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a manner that you will be asking for directions.

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Great so we'll be adding "Make Glorious Mr. Shithole" classes to the private curriculum and bullshitting about how borrowing loads of money from the chinky loan sharks to spend with the chinkies somehow miraculously becomes a "good" thing.

  7. #7
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    The way the Wokesters are destroying quality education in the West, having a Chinese owned sector may be our only salvation.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    The way the Wokesters are destroying quality education in the West, having a Chinese owned sector may be our only salvation.
    Yea, you'll need to explain that

  9. #9
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    The Chinese plague is insidious and all-enveloping but one truly does enjoy the stupidity of the British as they swallow with relish the poison that will eventually eat at them from inside out.

    The Chinese communists will never relinquish their grip and it remains their policy to consolidate its influence globally. They are playing the long game and are content to take each day as simply another opportunity to increase their power - every journey begins with one step.

    The profoundly stupid offer of citizenship by the British to 3 million HK BNOs and their families will ensure Beijing has a springboard into the heart of British society and its governance - I have known several HK-ers in my time and the majority who enjoy a sound middle class status and above are not anti - Beijing by any means, several in fact remain staunch supporters of the current crackdown on the younger generation whom thy regard as criminals and vandals.

    Owning the very cradle that nurtures the future generations of British leaders is but a stitch in time and it is inevitable in 40 years time Chinese loyal to Beijing will have woven themselves into the fabric of British society; in its politics, its defence, its corporate management and its civil infrastructure.

    The problem with Anglo-American foreign policy in the past 30 years is that it focused on the peripheral issues of the Middle East while ignoring the emerging peril of Russian resurgence and Chinese hegemony.

    There are only four blocs now influencing global development, China, Russia, the US and the EU. All others are mere collateral for the main players and their only choice is with whom should they align. Britain quit the EU bloc out of stupidity and by doing so it weakened it much to the delight of thE Russians and Chinese. Inevitably, Britain will be more of a stooge for Uncle Sam but that has made the country much more attractive to Chinese penetration - embed yourself in British society and you're already playing footsie with the Yanks.
    Last edited by Seekingasylum; 28-02-2021 at 10:52 AM.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Yea, you'll need to explain that
    That would mean he would first have to understand the terms he is employing to express himself but I doubt very much if he even knows what that means.

  11. #11
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    I'm unable to communicate with the Woke I'm afraid, because my ejummakashion was in the good old fashioned 3R's, and I lack both qualifications and interest in Black consciousness or Cancel culture. I am in no way qualified to dictate to others what they are and are not allowed to see or read, sadly.

    My equivalents in academia these days are mostly of Chinese or south Asian descent, who of course dominate the tertiary academic tables in all anglo nations. Lets see who is doing better in 20 years time- statue vandals or medical specialists..

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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    I'm unable to communicate
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Black consciousness
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Cancel culture
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    My equivalents in academia these days are mostly of Chinese or south Asian descent
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    dominate the tertiary academic tables in all anglo nations
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    statue vandals or medical specialists..
    That's a whole lot of bullshit to simply say you can't answer my very simple question.

    Jaysus, sabang, what happened to you - this is Klondyke/OhOh/Skidmark-level crap on your part

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post

    Jaysus, sabang, what happened to you - this is Klondyke/OhOh/Skidmark-level crap on your part
    How denigrating for him, he is surely longing to be in pH-level crap...

  14. #14
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    I am in no way qualified to dictate to others
    Yet, you will continuely do so.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    How denigrating for him, he is surely longing to be in pH-level crap...
    The physical world projects onto unique molecules

    FOK . . . or you could actually answer a question for a change as anyone can just post one piece of shit after the other. . . like you and OhNo

  16. #16
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    Reaction to the vaccine, it can be the only explanation for this behavior.

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