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A Virginia public high school ranked among the best in America has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from entities linked to the Chinese state since 2014 as part of an ongoing fundraising campaign.
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology’s Thomas Jefferson Partnership Fund (TJPF) received donations of at least $250,000 from the nonprofit Ameson Education and Cultural Exchange Foundation in fiscal year 2015 and 2016 — and between $100,000 and $500,000 in fiscal year 2018, according to documents obtained by the conservative group Parents Defending Education and first reported by the Washington Examiner.
Sean Zhang, Ameson’s founder and executive vice chairman, has ties to Beijing’s so-called United Front Work Department, which the US said in 2018 works to “co-opt and neutralize” opposition to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
TJPF’s annual newsletter also crowed of a donation of at least $500,000 from the Chinese department store giant Shirble HK in fiscal year 2018.
