China is looking to quietly expand its influence in the country.
Now the educational system is giving them a golden opportunity to target students.
And Florida sounded the alarm on this emerging threat from China aimed at schools.
Chinese tutoring service in American classrooms
Florida is warning school districts in the state to stop using tutoring.com, an online tutoring service owned by a Hong Kong-based private equity firm.
The Florida Department of Education (FDOE) sent a memo to school districts alerting them to potential security concerns related to tutoring.com owner Primavera Capital.
Primavera Capital founder and CEO Fred Hu has extensive ties to the Communist Chinese Party (CCP), including the United Front.
The United Front is used by Chinese intelligence for surveillance and foreign influence operations.
Employing Chinese businesses as part of the country’s intelligence operations is a routine tactic by the CCP.
Chinese law requires that all businesses in the country cooperate and share information with the communist government.
“Let me be clear, school districts, charter schools, and state colleges should not contract with companies that have ties to foreign countries of concern and risk compromising student data,” Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. wrote school districts in the memo. “Institutions must take the necessary steps to protect their students from nefarious foreign actors such as the [CCP].”
Chinese communist behind company tutoring American students
Fred Hu served as a delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in the Hunan province in 2022.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission reported that CPPCC delegates “attend a high-profile annual meeting to receive direction from the CCP” and “serve as proxies for CCP interests by virtue of their participation in this forum, and they frequently act as interlocutors with foreign government officials, businesses, and academic institutions.”
The CPPCC charter says that its delegates must “facilitate implementation of state foreign policy” and “keep state secrets.”
“We found that [Hu] listed as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and it says that he joined in 2008,” Daily Caller News Foundation investigative reporter Philip Lenczycki told NTD’s China In Focus.
Tutoring.com collects a wide variety of personal data on its tutoring sessions that could be turned over to the CCP.
China could be vacuuming vast amounts of personal information on American students using the tutoring program.
Now Florida is stopping this alarming Chinese threat to classrooms across the state dead in its tracks.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
