(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Zach Nunn says bills scheduled for debate in the U.S. House could have prevented the Chinese Communist Party from setting up what appears to be data mining on phones Iowa kids took on a trip to China. Nunn says 20 students from Des Moines recently went on an all-expenses-paid trip to China.

“They forced these kids to hand over their digital information, required them to use WeChat — an internal public server for China (and) started an early process of cultivation,” Nunn said. “In the counter-espionage world, we consider this source recruitment.”

The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries organized the trip for Des Moines Roosevelt High School’s gospel choir. Nunn, a Republican from Ankeny, was assigned to the White House National Security Council when he served in the U-S Air Force and worked on combating cyber-attacks from Iran and Russia.

He’s served as a counterintelligence officer in the U-S Air Force Reserve. “The Chinese government is creating a series of shell organizations to recruit kids to come to China and then exploit them the moment they set down in soil inside Bejing,” Nunn said. “This has to stop.”

The House will vote on three bills targeting Chinese involvement in public K-through-12 schools in the United States. One would ban federal education funds from going to any U-S school that uses Chinese-funded programs, like Confucius Classrooms that teach the Chinese language and about Chinese culture.

“We have a friendship opportunity with China that is real,” Nunn said, “but we will not stand by while Chinese Communist agents attempt to recruit kids for future exploitation.” Another bill scheduled for House debate would require U-S public schools to notify the U-S Department of Education if they accept more than 10-thousand dollars from any foreign source.

The third bill requires schools to tell parents if money from any foreign adversary is being used to pay staff or pay for curriculum in their child’s school. A separate effort in congress seeks to restrict Chinese scholars from participating in research at U-S universities.