Both Des Moines Mayor Connie Boesen and a local leader from Maryland received letters from the U.S. House Select Committee on China.
DES MOINES, Iowa — The U.S. House Select Committee on China has urged Des Moines and Montgomery County, Maryland to end certain student exchanges to China.
In letters from committee chair John Moolenaar to Des Moines Mayor Connie Boesen and a community leader in Maryland, Moolenaar said recent student trips to China “serve as propaganda and influence operations rather than genuine cultural exchanges.”
He added that the trips were reportedly funded by organizations affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
Moolenaar specifically pointed to the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which organized an exchange with the Roosevelt High School gospel choir “Bridges 2 Harmony.”
In his letter, he said the U.S. government had found CPAFFC to be “a Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments” which “has sought to directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) global agenda.”
“While genuine people-to-people exchanges are critical for promoting mutual understanding, such exchanges facilitated by CPAFFC and sister-city relations with the PRC are anything but authentic,” Moolenaar writes. “Instead, they serve as cover for the CCP’s United Front work.”
The Committee on China said concerns for manipulation and surveillance were raised after Roosevelt students were required to download WeChat, which it called “a CCP-controlled platform that censors political content and harvests personal data.”
Des Moines City Manager Scott Sanders gave Local 5 the following statement:
“Though the City offers funding and limited staff support, the Greater Des Moines Sister Cities Commission operates independently of the City of Des Moines. The City of Des Moines had no knowledge of the trip in question but is reviewing the concerns and recommendations in the letter sent by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. The City will carefully consider appropriate measures.”
