Westminster School has abandoned the creation of its first sister school in China after the country’s Communist Party ruled it must approve all lessons.
The regulations, announced earlier this year, mean they must teach the same lessons as state-run schools and ‘uphold the leadership of the Communist Party’.
In a letter to parents yesterday, seen by the Daily Mail, Westminster said it had scrapped its sister campus due to ‘recent changes in Chinese education policy’.
The move could be replicated in the future by other British schools with campuses in China like Wellington and Harrow.
Westminster School (pictured) has abandoned the creation of its first sister school in China after the country’s Communist Party ruled it must approve all lessons
The new rules, which went into effect in September of this year, also limit foreign involvement in the running and management of private schools. Additionally, they require that school board members must be Chinese.
Westminster School said it now has ‘no plans’ to license its name in China, or provide ‘educational consultancy’ to any other projects there.
In the letter to parents, chairman of governors Mark Batten said the ‘landscape’ for developing sister schools in China was different compared with a few years ago – which he described as ‘unfortunate’.
It comes after an investigation found Westminster’s China project had links to the country’s communist government.
Westminster School said it now has ‘no plans’ to license its name in China, or provide ‘educational consultancy’ to any other projects there
Westminster originally planned to open six schools by 2028 in partnership with Hong Kong Melodious Education Technology Group (HKMETG), which would ‘fully fund’ the project.
It was reported last month that HKMETG founders include David Mao (a former secretary to the Peking University Communist Party) and Xu Ouyang (a entrepreneur who sits in a standing committee advising Tibet’s administration).
The first of the six schools was Chengdu Westminster School, located in south-west China. The proposed school of 2,000 students was designed to offer bilingual education to Chinese and foreign students, aged 3-18.
However, in his letter, Mr Batten said: ‘It is with great regret I write to tell you that this project has come to an end… Despite several attempts, the project was abandoned. [to] restructure and refinance the operations… this has proved not to be possible.’ Westminster School has been contacted for comment.