Chinese investors have been buying grammar schools in the United Kingdom, thirty of them over the past decade, provoking concern about Chinese Communist Party influence.
A senior government source told The Sunday Times: “China is playing the long game and doing all the things we used to do as an empire. They targeted universities before but have realised it’s easier to start younger. It’s ideological warfare. These children will grow up and be helpful to the Communist Party.”
Labour MP Phil Brickell, a member of the foreign affairs committee, described Britain’s “world-leading education system [as] an obvious target for influence” and said it “should be protected accordingly.” He added: “Successive previous governments have misunderstood the strategic threat posed by China. The government must ensure that British interests are safeguarded.”
It’s not that the People’s Republic of China has stopped trying to influence British universities and is now targeting British grammar schools because CCP officials only now realize what they have known for decades, the utility of indoctrinating the very young. The Party is targeting both K-12 schooling and the universities. The more Britons who tout the virtues of “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” the better, in the CCP’s view. The young, the very young, and the very very young are all viable prospects.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Starmer has proved reluctant “to place China on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which tracks individuals working for hostile states in the UK.”
According to a January 2025 Independent report, the prime minister was “set to exempt Chinese spies from toughest national security law,” the reason being that Starmer regards China as less of a threat than countries like Russia and Iran, or at any rate regards it as convenient to pretend that this is so. “Russia and Iran are expected to face the strictest scrutiny under the plans, but it’s understood people in the UK working for the Chinese state will not be placed into the same category.”
At the time, shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel (shown above) criticized “an extraordinary and reckless decision by this Labour government to exempt China from the toughest security restrictions which exist to protect our country. China continues to threaten our interests and the safety and security of our country.”
