GOP Lawmakers Target Another Company With Ties to CCP

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Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., are backing legislation to prohibit the Pentagon from using a Chinese-owned tutoring service for military members and their families.

The Ban Chinese Communist Party Access to U.S. Military Students Act is another step Congress is taking to scrutinize companies such as TikTok that have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

The act would prevent the Department of Defense from using Tutor.com, which is owned by Primavera Capital Group, an investment firm located in Hong Kong, the lawmakers claim has ties to the CCP.

Tutor.com is a long-standing provider of tutoring services to U.S. service members and their families, according to a Feb. 14 letter Cotton wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. In January 2022, Primavera Capital Group — a Chinese-owned corporation associated with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance — acquired Tutor.com and The Princeton Review, Cotton wrote.

He expressed concerns in the letter that personal data on users, such as location, internet protocol addresses, and contents of the tutoring sessions collected by Tutor.com is exposed to the CCP because Chinese national security laws require companies to release confidential business and customer data to the Chinese government.

“There is no reason the Pentagon should be paying a Chinese-owned service that collects the data of our service members and their families,” Cotton said in a news release. “There are plenty of American companies that offer tutoring services and aren’t subject to the Chinese government.”

Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, voted to approve legislation passed by the House on March 13 that would compel ByteDance to sell its interest in TikTok or the popular app would be banned in the U.S.

“We cannot allow Communist China to collect an arsenal of data on our service members and their families that can be weaponized against them, posing a grave and unnecessary threat to America’s national security,” Stefanik said in the news release.

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin reportedly is troubled that several school divisions — including three of the state’s largest — are using Tutor.com.

“The governor is concerned about the company having access to Virginians’ data unknowingly and has asked [the state Department of Education] for information regarding the use of Tutor.com in Virginia school divisions,” Youngkin press secretary Christian Martinez told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Newsmax reached out to Primavera Capital Group for comment.

On its website, Tutor.com said, “We abide by U.S. state and federal laws. Our headquarters are in New York City, and all student data is housed in the U.S.”

“Tutor.com voluntarily initiated a rigorous federal review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to ensure that stringent safeguards would be put in place to protect customer and student data, together with mechanisms that provide for constant monitoring and compliance,” the company wrote. “Our data-protection practices are therefore among the most comprehensive and well-enforced of any U.S. education services provider.”