The United Kingdom’s private-education sector is second to none. It offers structured programs to its students, who receive a world-class education and qualifications globally recognized by universities. It is little wonder that approximately one-third of pupils at British boarding schools now come from overseas, and the trend shows no sign of abating. Leveraging on their brand, many private schools have also opened campuses abroad, which benefits students who, for whatever reason, cannot study in the UK.
Since Harrow School opened its first international campus in Thailand in 1998, other British schools have followed suit throughout Asia, including China.
According to Harun Education, there were, as of August 2023, 970 accredited international schools on the Chinese mainland, including some of the UK’s most prestigious names. These include Dulwich College, Harrow School, and Fettes College, the alma maters of, respectively, Nigel Farage, Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Tony Blair.
Another famous English school that has invested particularly heavily in China is Wellington College. In partnership with the Wellington College China (WCC) group, it opened its first international school in Tianjin in 2011. This was followed by Wellington College International Shanghai in 2014. In 2018, WCC opened the bilingual Hiba Academy Shanghai, followed by Hiba Academy Hangzhou and Wellington College International Hangzhou. In 2022, WCC launched its flagship boarding school, Huili School Nantong.
According to King’s School Canterbury, its Shenzhen campus is a “model of excellence” that provides world-class facilities for all pupils, the very best teachers, and a holistic education. It says, “We borrow from the best of China and the UK but give everything our own special King’s twist with a strong emphasis upon creativity and communication.” The other international schools undoubtedly share its philosophy, and generations of students are benefiting accordingly.
On Aug 17, Harrow School’s international partner, Asia International School Ltd (AISL) Harrow, announced it would open a new campus in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in September 2027. It will be Harrow’s ninth franchise in China, and its 13th campus in Asia. AISL said there had been a “groundbreaking signing ceremony” at the end of June, at which it agreed with local government officials to establish a major new school for 1,500 children aged 2 to 18.
The school, which will have 64 classrooms, will teach pupils the English national curriculum, including the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and A-level courses in high school. Its courses will also undoubtedly incorporate elements of the Chinese national curriculum, with an appropriate element of patriotism, and the project has been warmly welcomed locally.
Indeed, AISL said it had received “strong support and guidance from the Guangzhou Education Bureau and the Huangpu district government,” and the project was “eagerly anticipated by the government”. If nothing else, this highlighted the importance local partners place upon broadening horizons and tapping into the best the UK has to offer in educational excellence.
Projects such as this not only facilitate quality education in China, but also benefit the schools themselves. They also promote positive Sino-British relations, which is the last thing certain individuals want to see.
Some people in the UK want China to fail, which is why they hope to see it isolated as much as possible, including in education. One such is Luke de Pulford, an adviser to Hong Kong Watch, the anti-China hate machine (whose CEO, Benedict Rogers, recently left his post under mysterious circumstances that have yet to be properly explained).
Upon learning of Harrow School’s proposed Guangdong campus, De Pulford was enraged. He said the facility would be unable to “call out” President Xi Jinping, without mentioning that its UK counterpart is also not in the business of “calling out” its prime minister (or that its Thai counterpart is similarly constrained). He said it was “profoundly galling to see the reputation of Churchill’s alma mater sold so cheaply”, adding that the new campus would have to follow “the brainwashing diktats of the party-state”.
If De Pulford imagined maniacal utterances would enhance his prospects of succeeding Rogers as Hong Kong Watch’s CEO, he is probably correct, although even Rogers was rarely quite so demented. However, nobody should be surprised, and his ugly past speaks for itself, notably concerning Hong Kong. He has committed himself to trying to harm China in every possible way, and a light must be shone on his activities.
He has, for example, sought the imposition of sanctions on the Hong Kong chief executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, attempted to bring terrorism charges in the UK against British police officers serving in Hong Kong who helped thwart the black-clad violence of 2019, and told investors that Hong Kong was “a risky place to do business”. He was even named by the prosecution as a co-conspirator in the ongoing national security trial of the former media magnate Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.
In 2020, when Rogers appointed him the Hong Kong Watch policy director, De Pulford was tasked with creating the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), of which he is now the executive director. He enlisted various ideologues as co-chairs, including the UK’s Sir Iain Duncan Smith (an old-style “reds under the beds” merchant), and Baroness (Helena) Kennedy KC (a Hong Kong Watch patron who served as “external adviser” to the notorious “Uyghur Tribunal,” chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, her fellow Hong Kong Watch patron). In 2021, Duncan Smith and Kennedy were sanctioned by Beijing together with Nice for their anti-China activities.
Since its creation, IPAC, which is committed to maintaining US hegemony, has maligned China at every opportunity, spread myths about Hong Kong, and done its best to frustrate better relations between the West and China. Therefore, De Pulford has recruited into its ranks China hostile parliamentarians from 27 legislatures (including from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance) and the European Union. To attract attention, IPAC regularly provides platforms to Sinophobic has-beens like Liz Truss (the UK), Mike Pompeo (the US), and Scott Morrison (Australia), who are all paid handsomely for their bile.
Once again, however, De Pulford is on a hiding to nothing, and there is no way that great British educational institutions like Harrow School would ever be deflected from their mission by the ravings of a bigot. If, however, he wants to get upset about something, he need not look far.
According to Julian Fisher, the co-founder of the Beijing-based market intelligence agency Venture Education (and chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China), British schools with branches abroad are facing competition from a planned network of Chinese international schools “all over the world”.
Since China, in 2019, announced its policy to open international schools worldwide, it has opened the first Chinese international school in Dubai, offering its public school curriculum and the gaokao college entrance examination. Fisher called it “the first of many,” and expected the policy to reach fruition within five years. On June 27, when he addressed the International Private Schools Education Forum in London, he remarked: “We say in the British Chamber that when the Chinese government sets something out, you’ve got 10 years until it really hits you. By 2029, you’re going to see these all over the world.”
The Chinese international schools will serve Chinese families based overseas and enable expatriate children to learn about their country’s heritage, language, history and culture. As things develop, places for other children may also be forthcoming.
In the past 10 years, China, according to Venture Education, has developed over 1,000 “Chinese Assisted Schools”, mainly in Africa. They are either funded by Beijing or a Chinese company and cater solely to local people, who will have been enlightened. It is little wonder that African countries are grateful to China for its assistance in this area and others, which stands in marked contrast to the centuries of exploitation by Western colonizers.
As China confidently moves forward, progress is being made in all areas, including education. If IPAC and Hong Kong Watch imagined they could affect the course of history, they are living in cloud cuckoo land. One day they will hopefully realize there is more to life than doing Washington’s bidding, and that better global relations are the key to a better world.
The author is a senior counsel and law professor, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
