In April, about 31 Montgomery County students from 12 high schools traveled to China through the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE).
While the nonprofit markets itself as promoting international understanding, its charter integrates CCP ideology into its operations, indicating that it follows “Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory … and Xi Jinping Thought,” according to the letter sent to Montgomery County.
The organization also maintains a Party cell within its management to carry out directives. A Party cell is a small organizational unit of the CCP embedded within an institution to enforce Party ideology and carry out CCP directives, meaning that decisions and educational programming are subject to Party oversight rather than being independent nonprofit activities.
The letter also notes that this information is hidden on the group's English website as “CEAIE’s English website omits both material elements of the organization’s subordinate relationship to the CCP and its role as the Party’s influence agent.”
According to Moolenaar, Montgomery County School Board President Julie Yang said that the exchanges were not just about pickleball but about building bridges among young people, communities, and cultures.
"Ms. Yang is right that the sporting competition CEAIE funded is clearly not just about pickleball; it is a tool used by the CCP to expand its influence over the American public," Moolenaar wrote.
In July, the Roosevelt High School gospel choir, called Bridges 2 Harmony, joined a trip organized by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC). Students were required by the exchange organizer to download the WeChat app in order to participate. Moolenaar's letter to Mayor Boesen states that the requirement "only raises additional red flags about the potential nefarious intent behind the exchange."
WeChat is a "messaging platform heavily monitored by the CCP that stores and can transfer the personal information of U.S. citizens without prior consent, censors content that the CCP deems politically sensitive, and spreads CCP disinformation," states the letter to the Mayor of Des Moines.
"While seemingly a benign people-to-people exchange, the U.S. government has found that CPAFFC is “a Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments” and “has sought to directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s global agenda," Moolenaar wrote.
“American youths should not be used as propaganda tools of the Chinese government to legitimize its authoritarian control or assert its undue influence on the American population,” stated Moolenaar. He recommended that Montgomery County and the City of Des Moines cease all future engagements with CEAIE, CPAFFC, and the CCP, as well as conduct a comprehensive review of all their exchange programs with China.
NTD has reached out to Montgomery County and Des Moines for comment. For now, officials in Montgomery County and Des Moines have not publicly responded to Moolenaar’s letters.