Despite the U.S. government taking a stronger stance toward China, one of the largest owners of American private schools is controlled by a firm chaired by Fred Hu, a self-described Chinese nationalist popularly known as “Red Fred.”
The Spring Educational Group operates 240 schools across 19 states, owning everything from a series of Montessori schools in Southern California to a network of private schools in New York, Washington, and Virginia.
Little was said about the investment until 2019, when more than 190 New York City families asked school leaders if the new ownership meant higher tuition. More scrutiny followed in 2023 after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) removed Spring Education from the state’s scholarship funds, saying it had “direct ties” to the Chinese Communist Party.
Spring Education is owned by Primavera Capital, a Hong Kong-based investment firm with a massive financial footprint. This includes stakes in ecommerce giant Alibaba, TikTok owner ByteDance, Palantir, and Yum China, the operator of KFC and Pizza Hut in China.
Hu is a public business figure on both sides of the Pacific, having held positions within the International Monetary Fund and World Economic Forum. While his professional resume is highly visible, Hu has largely kept his political views and affiliations private, even as his financial ascent has unfolded alongside China’s economic rise.
Born in 1963 in Toalin Temple Town in Hunan Province, Hu came of age during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, when the CCP sought to purge capitalism from China.
In an interview with Changsha Daily, Hu said the “idealistic elements in the revolutionary tradition” influenced him. A self-described nationalist with an emphasis on Chinese identity, he pursued a master’s degree in engineering science from Tsinghua University and a master’s and doctorate in economics from Harvard University.
“I believe that my skills, knowledge, and experience are very much needed in China, and I am able to serve the country,” Hu said.
After completing his studies, he joined the IMF to advise the Chinese government on macroeconomic policy and provide technical assistance, including tax and fiscal reforms, and later became a chief economist at the WEF.
During that period, Hu said his optimism about China’s economic future caused people to believe he was too biased towards Beijing. “They called me Red Fred,” he told the outlet. Hu continues to hold a red Chinese passport and has said it was impossible for him to accept allegiance to another country, a stance that followed him into the private sector.
Hu later worked at Goldman Sachs China, where he helped state-owned enterprises access international capital markets, including the Aluminum Corporation of China, China National Petroleum Corporation, and multiple Chinese banks. He played a key role in restructuring the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, convincing Goldman Sachs executives to take a direct investment stake rather than serve as advisers.
“Hu is a very accomplished businessman and economist who has served on many boards and positions advising major financial institutions and government bodies in both the U.S. and China,” Jennifer Richmond, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in an interview.
As part of China’s financial sector, Hu came into contact with Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. That relationship, combined with Hu’s government and institutional ties, laid the groundwork for Primavera Capital, which Hu co-founded in 2010.
Hu emerged as a major financial backer of Ma’s companies, serving as a pre-initial public offer anchor investor in Alibaba. Through Primavera, he invested in several Alibaba subsidiaries and took a seat on Ant Group’s board of directors. Hu and Ma also invested $460 million in Yum China, with Hu joining the company’s board.
When Ma withdrew from public view after Chinese regulators launched an antitrust investigation, Hu struck a careful balance in public remarks. He said Ma was “safe and sound” and called China’s investigation nothing out of the ordinary.
This careful balancing act extends to Hu’s political involvement. He denies being a CCP member, and Primavera officials have defended his reputation when questioned by Western media. Yet Hu has appeared at party-adjacent functions, including speaking at a 2016 symposium with members of the 11th Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body of the Chinese state.
Months later, Hu said one reason he returned to Hunan was to serve on the provincial committee. “I am very willing to play a role in Hunan’s economic and social development through the CPPCC platform,” he said in an interview published on the official website of the Hunan Provincial CPPCC.
In 2017, Hu began to draw attention from American politicians as Primavera moved into the U.S. private school sector. Primavera’s entry into private education came when it spent $500 million to take over Stratford School, a California-based system for preschool through eighth grade.
Eight months later, Primavera, through its Spring Education Group subsidiary, took over Nobel Learning Communities plus portions of LePort Schools, rapidly expanding its U.S. footprint. The transactions were presented as targeted investments, citing Primavera’s prior experience in education, and they were approved by federal regulators.
With increased expansion came more scrutiny. Parents in New York raised concerns after the firm bought BASIS Independent School, pushing its U.S. portfolio to 238 schools. Families questioned whether the new ownership would lead to higher tuition.
Primavera paused further education acquisitions until 2022, when it purchased Princeton Review and Tutor.com, the latter of which holds a longstanding contract with the Pentagon.
Richmond said Hu and Primavera’s interest in private education could be seen as a sound financial strategy. However, she said, “knowing the educational strategy of the CCP, we must watch his trend carefully.”
By fall 2023, Spring Education and Primavera had come to DeSantis’s attention. Earlier that year, DeSantis signed legislation barring schools affiliated with China from taking part in the scholarship program. Following an investigation, his administration said it would suspend school choice scholarships to four schools connected with Spring Education.
“We will not put up with any attempt to influence students with a communist ideology or allow Floridians’ tax dollars to go to schools that are connected to our foreign adversaries,” declared DeSantis.
Federal scrutiny followed. Months later, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced an investigation into whether Primavera’s purchase of Tutor.com would allow the CCP to access user data. In a letter to Tutor.com executives, Cassidy cited Primavera’s investment in ByteDance and warned the firm could pose a potential threat to U.S. interests. He demanded that Tutor.com explain how it collected and protected data, as well as its relationship with Primavera.
Primavera quietly sold Tutor.com and Princeton Review last fall to an unnamed American company.
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Hu and Primavera’s involvement in American education has prompted analysts to question how the U.S. balances its commitment to free markets with growing national security concerns. For Richmond, Primavera shows a broader shift where national security outweighs economic openness.
“Education, even private education, is a community good,” Richmond said. “While it should promote the marketplace of ideas, it should not conform to market principles where malign influences have more than stakeholder returns as their primary objective.”
As it stands, Hu’s investments underscore the tensions between economic openness and national security.
Taylor Millard is a freelance journalist who lives in Virginia. Follow him on X @TaylorMillard.
