Ladies and gentlemen, gather 'round the ivy-covered halls of Harvard University, where crimson isn't just the school colour, it's the shade of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) flag waving proudly in the lecture halls! According to a June 2025 Wall Street Journal bombshell, Harvard has been moonlighting as Beijing's top "party school" outside China, training thousands of CCP bureaucrats to rule with an iron fist while sipping overpriced Cambridge lattes. From mid-career officials to Politburo hopefuls, these comrades have swapped Mao's Little Red Book for Harvard's course catalogue, learning "public management" and "economic development" with a side of American naiveté. As the Trump administration threatens to hopefully slam the visa door shut, let's take a satirical stroll through Harvard's unofficial CCP curriculum and ask: is this the ultimate study-abroad scam, or just another day at America's wokest campus?
Picture the scene: it's 1998, and Harvard's Kennedy School rolls out the red carpet for China's bureaucrats with a shiny new fellowship program. Fast-forward to the 2000s, and they've launched "China's Leaders in Development," a weeks-long crash course split between Harvard's lecture halls and Beijing's Tsinghua University. The pitch? Equip CCP officials to "address China's national reforms" with Western know-how. The reality? A masterclass in how to game the system, American-style. These aren't your average undergrads cramming for finals; these are senior officials, hand-picked by the Party, soaking up lessons on governance while touring U.S. government offices like tourists at Disneyland. And the cherry on top? Some of their kids, offspring of CCP elites, waltz into Harvard's undergrad programs, proving that nepotism travels faster than a bullet train.
So, what's on the syllabus at this so-called "party school"? According to the Kennedy School's Ash Center newsletters, it's a buffet of public policy gems: "Public Management 101," where comrades learn to manage dissent with a smile; "Economic Development," teaching how to build ghost cities while dodging debt traps; and "Social Policy," which we can only assume covers advanced surveillance techniques for WeChat. Field trips to U.S. agencies offer practical tips, like how to file paperwork so slowly it outlives a dynasty. One can imagine a grizzled Politburo hopeful scribbling notes: "American bureaucracy: chaotic, but no match for our Great Firewall." By graduation, these officials are ready to return home, armed with Harvard diplomas and a newfound love for artisanal avocado toast.
The irony is thicker than a Boston fog. Harvard, bastion of liberal ideals, has been Beijing's finishing school for decades, churning out CCP alumni who've climbed to the Politburo and even negotiated trade deals with Trump's first administration. Forget Animal House, this is Apparatchik House, where the toga party is a five-year plan and the keg stand is a loyalty oath to Xi Jinping. Chinese media gush over Harvard's "sterling reputation" for training high-flyers, and some in China cheekily call it a "party school," a nod to the CCP's own academies for grooming loyalists. Meanwhile, American taxpayers foot the bill for campus facilities while CCP officials learn how to outsmart Uncle Sam. It's like inviting the fox to a henhouse seminar on poultry management.
Now, enter the Trump administration, stage right, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio wielding a visa ban like a sledgehammer. On June 25, 2025, Rubio announced plans to "aggressively revoke visas" for Chinese students tied to the CCP or studying in "critical fields." Harvard's cozy CCP pipeline is in the crosshairs, with Trump's team accusing the university of training China's elite to "harm U.S. interests." Conservatives, already fed up with Harvard's Left-leaning vibe, smell blood in the water, painting it as a cultural betrayal. Imagine the campaign ads: "Harvard: Where Commies Learn to Conquer!" The administration's push isn't just about visas; it's a broader war on universities as "liberal bastions," with Harvard as the poster child for everything wrong with academia.
But let's not kid ourselves, Harvard's not the only one cashing CCP checks. Since the 1990s, U.S. campuses have been Beijing's go-to for grooming bureaucrats, with thousands flocking to programs nationwide. Harvard just happens to be the shiniest trophy, its brand name a golden ticket for CCP climbers. And why not? A Harvard credential screams legitimacy, even if you're running a surveillance state back home. The university's defence, mumbled through gritted teeth, is that they're fostering "global understanding." Sure, and I'm fostering world peace by teaching my cat to fetch. The real kicker? Harvard's been raking in tuition dollars while CCP officials learn to perfect their authoritarian playbook. It's capitalism at its finest: sell the rope, then wonder why you're swinging.
So, what's the endgame? If Trump's visa crackdown holds, Harvard's CCP party might get shut down faster than a frat house after a noise complaint. But don't hold your breath, universities are addicted to international tuition, and China's deep pockets aren't going anywhere. Meanwhile, the CCP keeps laughing all the way to the Politburo, armed with Harvard's secrets and a few Starbucks mugs. For the rest of us, it's a wake-up call: when America's top university doubles as Beijing's boot camp, maybe it's time to check the guest list. Australia is even worse with white students fast becoming a minority, and every discipline being like the Harvard one.
"U.S. schools—and one prestigious institution in particular—have long offered up-and-coming Chinese officials a place to study governance, a practice that the Trump administration could end with a new effort to keep out what it says are Chinese students with Communist Party ties.
For decades, the party has sent thousands of mid-career and senior bureaucrats to pursue executive training and postgraduate studies on U.S. campuses, with Harvard University a coveted destination described by some in China as the top "party school" outside the country.
Alumni of such programs include a former vice president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping's top negotiator in trade talks with the first Trump administration.
In an effort announced Wednesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. authorities will tighten criteria for visa applications from China and "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields."
Alleged ties with the Communist Party have emerged as a leading line of attack in President Trump's pressure campaign against Harvard.
Some U.S. politicians have said that China's Communist Party is harvesting expertise in American academia to ultimately harm U.S. interests. The Trump administration has cited these criticisms among others to back its efforts to force a major cultural shift in U.S. colleges, which many conservatives regard as bastions of liberal and left-wing ideology.
American universities have played leading roles in shaping China's overseas training programs for mid-career officials, which Beijing started arranging at scale in the 1990s as a way to improve governance by exposing its bureaucrats to Western public-policy ideas and practices.
Harvard enjoys a sterling reputation among Chinese officials thanks to its record in training highflying bureaucrats who went on to take senior government roles and, in some cases, join the party's elite Politburo. Some observers dubbed Harvard a de facto "party school," as the party's own training academies for promising bureaucrats are known.
While Harvard Kennedy School hosted Chinese students as early as the 1980s, Beijing started sending officials for mid-career training there in a more organized manner in the following decade, according to Chinese media reports. One program, launched in 1998, offered fellowships and executive training courses to around 20 senior officials each year.
In the early 2000s, Harvard launched another program, "China's Leaders in Development," through which Chinese officials would undergo a weekslong training course split between Harvard and Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University.
The program was 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 the Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the Harvard segment of the program has featured classes on subjects including public management, economic development and social policy, as well as visits to U.S. government organizations.
Some children of top Communist Party officials have also attended Harvard for undergraduate and postgraduate studies."