James Comer has announced an investigation into Walz’s longstanding ties to China and the CCP
An official investigation has been launched into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s links to the Chinese Communist Party.
James Comer, who leads the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, announced the investigation on Friday with a press release and a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“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,” Comer said in the press release.
“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.”
The press release goes on to detail how Walz began organizing school trips to China, funded by the CCP, in the early 1990s, and then set up a private company which organized annual trips to China, until it was dissolved days before Walz entered Congress in 2007. Walz has visited China an estimated 30 times, and held various positions of influence with regard to US-China relations.
In his letter to FBI Director Wray, Comer asks for a variety of documents and information relating to Walz’s activities in and with regard to China, including about Chinese individuals and organizations and any warnings or guidance issued to Governor Walz about “subnational government officials engaging with the PRC, CCP, and the CCP’s proxies.”
In addition to questions about his longstanding ties to China and the CCP, Walz has faced scrutiny for his relationships with a radical pro-Hitler Muslim cleric in Minnesota and large amounts of funding provided by his administration to a Muslim group with links to Al Qaeda.