Tipsheet

Why Are We Paying to Train Future Chinese Leaders?

Jeff Charles
Jeff Charles  |  June 25, 2026 2:15 PM

Missouri State University has been using taxpayer funds to run an MBA program that trained thousands of high-profile Chinese executives and government officials for more than two decades, according to a new report.

Business intelligence and geopolitical risk firm Strategy Risks compiled a report detailing its findings after investigating the matter. The report reveals how taxpayer funds went toward training and educating Chinese officials who work in the country’s military industrial complex.

The report, titled “Heartland for Hire,” says the university granted American degrees to Chinese state-owned enterprise managers and government officials who later took positions in China’s defense sector. 

The program trained over 1,500 people between 2001 and 2018. “Since 2001, Missouri State University (MSU) — a public university funded by Missouri taxpayers — has operated a MBA and EMBA pipeline for thousands of Chinese executives, officials, and state-owned enterprise (SOE) personnel, including figures tied to China’s defense industry,” the report notes.

Many graduates filled senior roles at companies like Aviation Industry Corporation of China, or AVIC, a firm that the federal government sanctioned for its links to the People’s Liberation Army. One graduate works at an AVIC drone company. Another became party secretary at an AVIC leasing unit.

Another individual became vice president at iFLYTEK, which has been blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce Department for selling surveillance tools that were used against Uyghurs.

The Chinese Communist Party selected the students and set the rules, the report claims. Chinese state organizations controlled admissions and chose only those who were reliably loyal to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “Although MSU grants the degrees, Chinese state institutions control who is admitted, the selection criteria, and the makeup of each cohort. The program was conceived and commissioned by a Chinese government delegation in 1999 and designed around the needs of China’s state enterprise system,” the report states.

Another striking detail is that AVIC workers studied at the school as a delegation from the Chinese defense university visited the campus. The university gave these students special treatment, waiving English tests that other applicants were required to pass. The school was later placed on a U.S. watch list for national security reasons.

But the most egregious part of this story is that we paid for part of this.

The report notes that the Chinese government paid half the cost, students paid about $27,000, and the federal government covered the remaining balance.  “Chinese government covered half of tuition, the U.S. government covered one quarter, and students paid the remaining quarter — about $27,000 — implying roughly $27,000 in U.S. taxpayer-funded support per student.” 

This means taxpayers could have paid “tens of millions of dollars” to train future members of the Chinese regime. 

But wait, it gets even better.

The report says the university’s leaders were aware of the program but did not do its due diligence as far as checking out the ties to the CCP and the regime’s defense industry. In a 2011 audit, they only looked at travel expenses for the school’s main administrator who visited China more than 100 times. 

The program is still in effect today. Chinese schools advertised it for 2024 classes.

Yet, Missouri State still claims no taxpayer money went to the program. I’m thinking they have some explaining to do. It’s one thing to even allow these students to train at U.S. universities — it’s quite another to make average Americans fund it.