Recently, another scandal involving mainland Chinese students drinking milk has been exposed, revealing the underlying profit-driven motives behind the mandatory milk subscription. Veteran education expert Guo Song revealed to Epoch Times the corrupt practices in Chinese schools, lamenting, “From top to bottom, the Communist Party is corrupt with no bottom line. Do you think China will be okay? Will the children be healthy?”
In a recent incident, netizens exposed a school in Suizhou, Hubei Province, where teachers required students to subscribe to milk at school. Those who did not subscribe were asked to obtain a medical diagnosis certificate from a county-level hospital or above, leading to accusations of “coercive milk subscription.”
Despite the local education department’s response confirming the improper remarks made by the involved teacher as “personal behavior,” the report was later deleted from the entire internet. Only the article’s accompanying image remains visible on Google, showing a central school in a certain county requiring students who do not subscribe to milk to obtain a medical certificate stating that milk consumption is not suitable.
Screenshots revealed that some parents had already paid fees, amounting to 330 yuan.
Netizens expressed frustration, stating, “The school says you can’t bring your own milk, you can only drink the school’s subscribed milk at school, and student milk must be finished at school and cannot be taken home.” “But some people simply don’t like drinking milk, requiring proof seems too much like forced buying and selling…” “Not subscribing to milk requires providing an allergy diagnosis, not ruling out the milk being tainted for profit.”
As early as 2000, several Chinese ministries jointly issued a notice on the implementation of the national “Student Milk Drinking Program,” but issues have arisen in the implementation of the program on school campuses.
This is not the first time a school’s mandatory milk subscription incident has been exposed. In 2022, a parent group in a town revealed that out of a class of 53 students, 15 completed subscriptions, while 38 students’ parents did not. The teacher in the group threatened parents with “treating all 53 children equally” and required students who could not drink student milk due to a certain illness to present a diagnosis and treatment certificate from a county hospital or higher.
In May 2019, parents in Xinye County, Henan Province collectively reported that six students from Unity Primary School experienced symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, and fever after consuming the school’s distributed student milk. There were two incidents of student milk poisoning that year. Following an investigation by the county discipline inspection commission, a deputy director of the county education bureau and a deputy principal in charge of logistical mess halls were found to have accepted bribes and kickbacks, compromising the quality of student milk.
According to a report by The Paper in May 2024, three companies contracted for the student nutrition meal program in Pinglu County, Shanxi Province, priced three 200ml/box of yogurt at 5 yuan per box, far exceeding the market price, sparking controversy.
Parents expressed anger, believing that schools should be places for education, not for business. “Education is the foundation of the country. Now education is industrialized, and capital is introduced. It will destroy the nation!”
“Bidding for milk requires money. Leaders want a share, while merchants want to profit. How many times will it be multiplied?” “In other sectors, it’s tolerable, but the campus and hospitals really shouldn’t be tainted, this should be a bottom line.” “Where is the pure land? Schools are chaotic, from uniforms to school meals to classroom seating, and more.”
Schools have been cited as one of the epicenters of corruption. Former Chinese primary school teacher Guo Song, in an interview with Epoch Times, stated that corruption in schools runs from top to bottom, involving profit-sharing, even giving commissions to class teachers because they rely on the class teachers to do the work. So students who do not subscribe to milk must go to the hospital to obtain proof, similar to getting vaccinated during a pandemic – it’s said to be voluntary, but if you don’t get vaccinated, you still need to get a medical certificate.
Guo Song has been teaching in China for over thirty years and has worked as a class teacher. She said, “Years ago, schools had yogurt, later it became student milk, which is actually the most deceitful. Frankly, yogurt comes in glass bottles, fermented, and I believe purchasing a bottle for children is beneficial for their health. Student milk is a manipulated beverage, labeled as a milk drink on the carton, with no milk ingredients listed on the label.”
Guo Song noticed that in schools abroad, there are water purification machines everywhere, and students can access water for free. In Chinese schools, there are kickbacks for milk subscriptions, water consumption, and even for meals.
“When I was at the school, every class had a water dispenser, and you were charged 10 to 20 yuan. The dispenser has a large water tank on top, and no one cleans or disinfects it for a semester (four to five months). Previously exposed by the media, the ‘purified water’ was just tap water, sold to the school because of connections.” Guo Song mentioned that since the logistics staff were unwilling to provide water, she had parents give their children two bottles of water a day or bring drinks and fruits.
“The school has canteens, and students are not allowed to eat at ‘small dining tables’ (outside eateries), so they pressure class teachers: anyone who eats outside at the ‘small dining tables’ must be brought back, putting pressure on parents.”
On February 14, a teacher at the Zhuya campus of Experimental School in Xixi County, Huanggang City, Hubei Province, forced parents to order student milk and accused parents who refused to cooperate in the group chat, saying, “I’ll say something ugly first, don’t come looking for me for help in the future…”
In response, the school stated that the milk subscription was a project introduced by the Huanggang City government and had been implemented for about thirty years in Huanggang. “The teacher’s words were indeed inappropriate, but there is no way around it; there is pressure from the leadership above towards the school and the teachers. It’s not that all students must subscribe, it’s just that a little over fifty percent is required…”
The Education Bureau of Xixi County and the Education Bureau of Huanggang City emphasized that student milk subscription is voluntary. In response, netizens commented, “It’s called voluntary, but if you don’t volunteer, they will wear you down.” “Insurance, milk, they all come with pressure from above.” “Every new school year is filled with such rotten incidents! Children have become a cash cow!”
Regarding the 50% milk subscription target, Guo Song told Epoch Times, “This is a lie; it is followed by kickbacks and profit-sharing. It’s a pyramid scheme where only those at the top benefit the most, feeding off those below. They are the ones who get the biggest share of the profits. If they claim to reach half the target, teachers and principals should feel no pressure.”
“For example, when subscribing to newspapers and magazines, everyone has to subscribe, and the teachers are delighted. Why are they happy? Because they get a commission. It’s too easy to achieve a 50% subscription rate. If a teacher says, ‘Who’s subscribing? Half is easily reached.’ If there’s pressure on the teachers, it’s not really 50%.”
In mainland China, school principals can have a lot of gray income. Guo Song revealed that students who want to attend a specific school have to pay the school part of the fees openly and also give a portion to the principal secretly; schools regularly participate in events, take group tickets, and principals can make tens of thousands of benefits; when renovating schools, hiring their own construction teams also involves profit-sharing.
She said, “In our school, a renovation project worth 5 million yuan wasn’t even completed. In another school, over the summer, the principal demolished a load-bearing wall, causing the first-floor toilets to collapse, with cracks extending high on the walls and floor, and the restroom roped off; another school had the principal redo renovations, and the building collapsed after changing principals several times. Fortunately, no casualties occurred during summer vacation.”
“Moreover, why are the school buildings always of substandard quality? It’s because they pass the buck down the chain, and when it reaches the bottom, to earn money, they can only cut corners. The same goes for building houses and renovations; everyone is peeling off layers for kickbacks, and in the end, it’s all shoddy work. China’s money is being squandered in this manner.”
Guo Song also disclosed that recently, in Shenyang, Liaoning, the discipline inspection department began investigating school teachers for the past ten years, based on unreported income, setting a deadline for teachers to deposit money into a designated account. There were reports that some principals paid tens of thousands, while class teachers paid varying amounts like three to five thousand, without daring not to pay. The Education Bureau’s discipline inspection would seize teachers’ phones casually, inspecting their WeChat to see if there were any parents sending red packets.
“In actuality, the little kickback money for teachers is like a drop in the ocean for those corrupt officials of the Communist Party. They owe salaries to teachers for so many years and still haven’t paid them, yet have the audacity to go after teachers’ money. How has the Communist Party deteriorated to this extent? Are they out of their minds now? The more they do this, the closer they are to their downfall,” she said.