Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz has visited the People's Republic of China 30 times, including spending his honeymoon there with his wife.
On August 16, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting several documents as part of an investigation into Walz's “concerning ties to the People's Republic of China.”
Comer wrote to Wray: “The Committee is aware that Governor Walz has longstanding ties to organizations and officials with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, making him susceptible to the Party's elite-capture strategy, which seeks to co-opt influential figures from within the political, cultural, and academic elites to benefit the Communist regime and harm the American people.”
He added, “FBI briefers informed the Committee that the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) is investigating the exact same type of activity that has since been uncovered regarding Governor Walz.”
Comer cited several reasons for the committee's investigation: In 1993, while he was a teacher, Waltz organized trips to China for Alliance High School students, paid for by the Chinese government. In 1994, Waltz founded a private company called Educational Travel Adventures, which coordinated annual student trips to China until 2003 and which Waltz personally led. “The company was reportedly dissolved four days after Mr. Waltz was sworn in as a member of Congress in 2007,” the committee reported.
During his time in Congress, Waltz also served as a research fellow at the Macau Polytechnic University, a Chinese university that describes itself as having “longstanding dedication and affection for the motherland.” In 2019, he delivered the keynote address at the 27th National Conference of the U.S.-China People's Friendship Association in Minnesota, speaking alongside the president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC). “A year later, the State Department exposed the association as a 'Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting local governments' and also engaged in 'directly and malignly influencing state and local leaders to advance China's global agenda.'”
Comer's committee is asking the FBI for all documents and communications relating to Chinese entities or persons with whom Waltz “may have been involved or affiliated.”
