House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has initiated a high-stakes investigation into Minnesota Governor Timothy Walz, who was recently announced as Kamala Harris’s running mate.
The inquiry comes amid growing concerns over Governor Walz’s reported connections to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities and officials.
In a strongly worded letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Chairman Comer requested a comprehensive review of all information, documents, and communications related to Governor Walz’s engagements with CCP-affiliated entities and officials.
The investigation will also examine any advisories or warnings that the FBI may have provided to Governor Walz concerning the CCP’s influence operations targeting U.S. political figures.
“The CCP has sought to destroy the United States through coordinated influence and infiltration campaigns that target every aspect of American life, including our own elected officials,” said Chairman James Comer.
“Americans should be deeply concerned that Governor Walz, Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential running mate, has a longstanding and cozy relationship with China.”
“Mr. Walz has visited China dozens of times, served as a fellow at a Chinese institution that maintains a devotion to the CCP, and spoke alongside the President of a Chinese organization the State Department exposed as a CCP effort to influence and co-opt local leaders. FBI briefers recently informed the Committee that the Bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force investigates CCP activity that is similar to China’s engagement with Governor Walz. The American people deserve to fully understand how deep Governor Walz’s relationship with China goes,” he added.
According to the press release:
“Reporting indicates Governor Walz has concerning ties to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In 1993, according to the Star-Herald, as a teacher, Mr. Walz organized a trip to the PRC with Alliance High School students, where costs were paid by the Chinese government.
In 1994, Mr. Walz set up a private company named “Educational Travel Adventures, Inc.,” which coordinated annual student trips to the PRC until 2003 and was led by Mr. Walz himself.
The corporation was reportedly dissolved four days after he took congressional office in 2007. Since his first trip to China, Governor Walz has visited the PRC an estimated 30 times.
While serving in Congress, Mr. Walz also served as a fellow at the Macau Polytechnic University, a Chinese institution that characterizes itself as having a “long held devotion to and love for the motherland.”
Governor Walz spoke alongside the President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, which, a year later, the Department of State exposed as “a Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments,” including efforts “to directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s global agenda.”
Read the full letter here.
BREAKING
Chairman James Comer has launched an investigation into Minnesota Governor Timothy Walz, Kamala Harris’s recently announced vice-presidential running mate, following reports detailing the Governor’s longstanding connections to Chinese Communist Party entities and…
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) August 16, 2024
Representative Jim Banks (R-IN) also called on Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to launch an immediate investigation into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s repeated visits to China during his tenure with the Nebraska and Minnesota National Guards.
Banks’ letter to the Pentagon raises serious concerns about whether Walz, a former senior enlisted service member, properly reported his frequent foreign travels, potentially putting national security at risk.
Walz, who served in the National Guard for nearly 24 years, reportedly made nearly 30 trips to China between 1989 and 2005, many of which took place while he held a security clearance as part of his duties.
“He and his wife also organized trips to China from 1994 to 2003 at least annually. During this whole period, Walz remained a service member in either the Nebraska or Minnesota National Guards and presumably held a clearance for much or all of this time. Walz claimed in 2016 that he had traveled to China nearly 30 times; it is likely that at least a dozen of these trips occurred while he was a guardsman,” according to the letter.
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