A group of 48 students and teachers from Niles Township High School District 219 in Skokie are traveling on a youth cultural exchange tour of mainland China, with Chinese government agencies paying the entire cost of their trip.
A U.S.Department of State spokesperson said the department has no role in such trips, but noted its travel advisory for China is at a Level 3, which warns U.S. citizens to “reconsider travel (to that country)” due to the fact some U.S. citizens have been detained and barred from leaving. The highest level of travel advisory is Level 4, “Do Not Travel,” generally applied to countries like Iran and Afghanistan.
A Chicago Council on Global Affairs expert said he felt that the students would travel and return safely, however.
The idea for the trip originated with a District 219 language class and was originally scheduled for 2020 but was rescheduled to this summer, per a district spokesperson. On the trip, from July 1 to July 12, plans call for the students to visit Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Fuzhou and Hangzhou.
to China.
Per district documents, the students will have the opportunity to visit tourist sites such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. The trip’s targets are for students to “gain increased fluency in Chinese, experience life in China and develop cross-cultural skills as part of their journey to becoming global citizens.”
The district’s Director of Communications, Takumi Iseda, said the students and teachers participating in the trip are part of the U.S. Youth Exchange Delegation.
The District 219 Board of Education approved the field trip in April and had previously OK’d the 2020 field trip in 2019, but had to postpone it due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time the board approved the trip, it was approved by consent agenda, in which the board approved several items at once, and no board members commented on it.
A Chinese agency called the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and the Chinese Tourism Group, a state-owned tourism group, will cover the entire cost of the trip, including registration, travel, lodging, food, and transportation, according to district documents.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of State said the department has no role in the Chinese-sponsored field trips and does not require Americans who travel abroad to report their trips.
“However, we encourage U.S. citizens to carefully evaluate the organizations that provide funding for any study abroad program outside of U.S.-government run or funded exchange programs,” the spokesperson said.
“The Department of State Travel Advisory is at Level 3 for Mainland China, recommending that U.S. citizens reconsider travel to Mainland China due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions. The State Department provides such information on every country in the world to help U.S. citizens assess the risks of international travel and make informed decisions about whether to travel to a country. Our aim is that U.S. citizens wishing to go to the PRC do so with full understanding of the risks involved.”
The People’s Republic of China aims to invite 50,000 American students to China over the next five years through the Youth Envoy Scholarship (YES) program and began doing so in Nov. 2023, the spokesperson said.
NBC News reported last year that China’s increasing emphasis on exit bans, in which foreigners are arbitrarily detained in China, are having a chilling effect. Most of those detained are international business people or former Chinese citizens who have acquired U.S. citizenship, since China does not recognize dual citizenship, NBC reported.
Craig Kafura, the director of public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs, told Pioneer Press that he wouldn’t have any concerns for the safety of the high school students, but he understands people might have concerns for national security.
“These are high school students,” he said. “They, frankly, do not have the things (the Chinese government) wants. They do not work in sensitive areas. They do not have access to intelligence information. They’re just high school students.”
When asked if students will have their personal information vulnerable to be stolen by the foreign government, Kafura said, “American personal information is not very secure in general. You do not need to travel to China to have your personal information compromised, even by the PRC government.”
Kafura said it wasn’t concerning for China to sponsor field trips, saying that the U.S. also sponsors trips, some of them inviting people to the U.S. from China. He added that the field trips are just one of the Chinese government’s practices aiming to reignite relationships between China and the U.S. after visiting restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Niles West and Niles North High School students have participated in two different activities sponsored by the Chinese Consulate in Chicago since 2019, according to district documents. In early 2019, students from a first year Mandarin Chinese language class at Niles North wrote a letter to president Xi Jinping. To their surprise, Xi wrote back to the students and had the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Chicago personally deliver the letter to the students in April 2019.
“I was surprised, very surprised,” a high school freshman said at the time. “It was an honor to receive a letter from him. It was really nice getting a letter from him.”
The consul general and members of his delegation spent more than an hour talking to the Niles North class back then. “I see from the classes offered at your school learning languages are important,” the consul general said. “Developing this knowledge will be helpful developing a two-way relationship with our countries.”
Students from Skokie, Lincolnwood, Niles and Morton Grove attend District 219 schools, including Niles North and Niles West high schools.
The offices of U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin of Illinois, both Democrates, did not immediately respond to inquiries about the trip. The office of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky declined to comment.
