Report: Missouri State University’s Decades-Long MBA Program for Communist Elites

Missouri State University has run an MBA program that trained over 1,500 Chinese Communist Party officials and executives, including those at U.S.-sanctioned firms.

Mary Man

Published: 6/25/2026, 2:10:11 PM EDT

Report: Missouri State University’s Decades-Long MBA Program for Communist Elites — Chinese students wait outside the U.S. Embassy for their visa application interviews, in Beijing on May 2, 2012. (Alexander Yuan/AP Photo)

For over two decades, a public university in the American heartland has allegedly trained hundreds of top executives tied to China’s military-industrial complex, according to a new watchdog report.

The report, "Heartland For Hire," produced by Isaac Stone Fish’s analytical firm Strategy Risks, reveals that Missouri State University (MSU) has spent 25 years running an MBA program for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, including those in China’s defense industry.

Since the program began in 2001, it has “trained more than 1,500 current and future managers for Chinese state-owned enterprises and government bodies,” the investigation found.

Some graduates have gone on to secure senior roles at American-sanctioned Chinese firms.

Graduates 'Aligned With the Party’s Strategic Priorities'

Although MSU conducts the training and confers the degrees, the report finds that the program is tightly controlled by the CCP. Ultimately, the Chinese side determines the admission criteria and selects the candidates.

“One of the most significant features of this program,” the report states, “is that the CCP – and not MSU – selected the students.”

Furthermore, the university reportedly eased its standard academic requirements for these cohorts. “Program applicants,” the report adds, “have received preferential admissions treatment from MSU, including but not limited to waived English-proficiency requirements.”

As a regional institution, MSU’s business school is known for offering an affordable and practical MBA program in the Midwest, rather than the international prestige or elite ranking of an Ivy League school or a Top-20 program.

The report suggests this low-profile setting was deliberately chosen by the CCP to develop its future leaders. These MBA credentials serve as more than academic qualifications; they act as proof that the graduates are “aligned with the Party’s strategic priorities” and represent “the types of talent sought by the Party.”

“The degree exposes participants to American management methods, capital markets, and corporate governance structures — knowledge directly applicable to running state enterprises that compete internationally and procure from Western suppliers,” the report said.

Ties to China’s Defense Industry

The investigation names several high-profile defense entities linked to the program’s alumni, including executives from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). AVIC—a major state-owned defense conglomerate—has faced multiple U.S. federal sanctions for aiding the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and for reportedly supplying components to a subsidiary of the sanctioned Russian defense firm Rostec during the war in Ukraine.

According to Strategy Risks, MSU arranged a December 2019 meeting between AVIC employees enrolled in the MBA program and a delegation from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, another PLA-linked institution sanctioned by the United States. To this day, Nanjing University lists MSU as a partner for research projects involving “aviation transport management” and “military and civil integration.”

Beyond AVIC, the report identifies other prominent alumni, including the vice president of iFlytek—an artificial intelligence firm blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce Department in 2019 for supplying surveillance technology used against the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. The program also trained a senior executive from Jianshe Industry Group, a Chinese defense company designated by the Pentagon as a PLA supplier.

Dispute Over Funding

The funding behind the program remains contested. Strategy Risks notes that Chinese recruiting materials offer conflicting financial accounts. The most detailed Chinese primary source indicates a three-way payment structure: the Chinese regime covered half of the tuition, students paid a quarter, and the U.S. government covered the remaining quarter—amounting to roughly $27,000 in American taxpayer support per student.

Based on these figures, Strategy Risks estimates that total U.S. taxpayer subsidies may have reached tens of millions of dollars over the years. However, the report acknowledges that no public U.S. records confirm these payments and that the total amount cannot be independently verified.

On its website, MSU notes that an out-of-state student pays about $33,600 in tuition and fees to complete an MBA—a rate that typically represents the full cost of the degree.

The university has pushed back against the report’s financial claims. “No taxpayer dollars were directed toward the program, as the report alleges but readily admits it cannot substantiate,” MSU told NTD via email.

A spokesperson for MSU said the school was aware of the report and denied that any taxpayer funds supported the program. The spokesperson added that there is no evidence of graduates engaging in misconduct such as espionage or intellectual property theft.

“As the report further acknowledges, the students studied a ‘conventional business curriculum’ with no evidence of espionage, intellectual property theft, misconduct, false affiliations or complaints of harassment,” the spokesperson told NTD. “Students admitted to the program were required to comply with all student visa regulations administered by the U.S. State Department.”