America First Legal (AFL) announced an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s “extensive, multi-decade” ties to China.
The conservative legal organization’s probe is aimed at uncovering potential national security risks related to Walz’s numerous trips to China and his professional engagements with Chinese institutions.
According to AFL, they have submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to Walz’s office, the FBI, and the Department of Justice, asking for documents that could shed light on any connections with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities or affiliates.
Congressman Comer investigating Walz’s China ties
On Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky) criticized the government’s lack of a unified strategy to combat China’s political warfare, stating it leaves Americans vulnerable.
“Too many federal agencies have failed to understand, acknowledge, and combat CCP political warfare,” Comer said during a hearing in Washington, D.C.
According to Comer, federal agencies are “dangerously” behind in addressing CCP influence and infiltration tactics. He emphasized the need for a government-wide approach to counter the CCP’s growing threat to U.S. industries and national security.
🚨 Chairman Comer opens hearing by revealing that our Committee has found evidence that the CCP is waging a “war without weapons” against America and the Biden-Harris Admin has no government-wide strategy to combat it.
“The CCP employs this strategy to infiltrate and influence… pic.twitter.com/kcFwNwQGXy
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) September 24, 2024
Just last month, Comer launched a House Oversight Committee investigation into Walz’s long-term relationship with China. Throughout his life, including as a national guardsman, Walz has visited China approximately 30 times and operated Educational Travel Adventures, Inc., a for-profit company that organized trips to China for American students from 1991 to 2003.
Until at least 2007, Walz was also a fellow at the Macau Polytechnic University, a Chinese institution that has characterized itself as having a “long-held devotion to and love for the motherland.”
Concerns raised about Confucius Institutes and CCP influence in Minnesota
According to AFL, some of Minnesota’s universities enabled the CCP through Confucius Institutes, which are considered key instruments of China’s “soft power” influence operations in the United States.
The University of Minnesota and St. Cloud State University (SCSU) both hosted Confucius Institutes. Despite pressure from the Trump administration and Congress to close these institutes, SCSU’s Confucius Institute remained open until September 2023, AFL said. The University of Minnesota closed its Confucius Institute at the end of the spring 2019 semester.
SCSU’s Master of Science in Information Assurance program was also designated a National Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency, adding further concerns to the institution’s connections to China.
AFL’s investigation comes on the heels of Alpha News’s exclusive reporting on a former Nebraska National Guard colleague of Walz, who alleges that a classified nuclear standard operating procedure (SOP) manual went missing around the time Walz returned from a trip to China.
AFL requests documents on Walz’s China connections
In its request to Walz’s office, AFL has called for the release of all records and communications related to the Confucius Institutes, the Ministry of Education of the PRC, the Beijing Genomics Institute, and any members of the CCP.
The organization emphasized that the American people deserve transparency about whether Walz used his public office to advance the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.
“The Trump administration and its bipartisan partners in Congress had no illusions about the Chinese Communist Party’s nature and intentions,” said Reed D. Rubinstein, AFL senior vice president.
“By contrast, Gov. Walz’s long and troubling history of sympathetic engagement with the CCP suggests, at best, a blind disregard for our national security. The truth about Gov. Walz must be exposed.”
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
