EXCLUSIVE: The House Oversight Committee is investigating Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and his alleged “longstanding ties” to China and CCP-affiliated companies, Fox News Digital has learned.
Fox News Digital has exclusively obtained a letter that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray informing the bureau of the committee’s investigation into Walz.
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is conducting a government-wide investigation into the Chinese Communist Party’s political warfare against America and the federal authorities’ response,” he wrote. “Vice President Kamala Harris recently announced her vice presidential nominee, Timothy Walz, the current governor of Minnesota.”
AS GOVERNOR, WALZ SUPPORTED “SANCTUARY” POLICIES AND SERVICES FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: “WIN FOR OPEN BORDERS”
Comer said the committee was briefed by the FBI on April 22 and July 17 – both briefings took place before Walz was named Harris’s vice presidential running mate.
Vice President Kamala Harris is joined by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday, August 9, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
However, Comer said FBI informants had told the committee that the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force was investigating “exactly the kind of activities that have now come to light in the case of Governor Walz.”
Comer is now seeking information about the Chinese companies and officials with whom Walz “has had contacts and formed partnerships,” as well as “any warnings or tips the FBI may have given Governor Walz that U.S. politicians are being targeted or recruited into CCP influence operations.”
Comer said Walz had “longstanding ties to CCP-affiliated entities and officials that made him vulnerable” to the CCP’s strategy of “uniting the elite.” The CCP seeks to co-opt influential figures from elite political, cultural, and academic circles to “influence the United States to the benefit of the communist regime and to the detriment of Americans.”
Comer referred to reports of Walz’s “extensive contacts with CCP officials and entities during his tenure” and said this raised questions about “potential CCP influence on his decisions as governor – and, if elected, as vice president.”
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Recent reports indicate that Governor Walz has troubling ties to the People’s Republic of China,” Comer wrote.
Comer pointed to reports that while Walz was a teacher in the early 1990s, he organized a trip to China for Alliance High School students, the costs of which were allegedly “funded by the Chinese government.”
“In 1994, Mr. Walz founded a private company called Educational Travel Adventures, Inc., which coordinated annual student trips to the PRC until 2003 and was managed by Mr. Walz himself,” Comer wrote, adding that the company “was reportedly dissolved four days after he took office in Congress in 2007.”
Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz in a 1995 Nebraska police photo after his arrest for drunk driving
Comer also said Walz traveled to China an estimated “30 times.”
“In its investigation, the committee highlighted the importance of U.S. officials being aware of the CCP’s political and psychological warfare efforts aimed at threatening national security,” Comer wrote.
Comer then referred to Walz’s time in Congress, noting that he served as a fellow at Macau Polytechnic University – a Chinese institution that characterizes itself as one with a “long-held devotion and love of country.”
Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally with Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris at Temple University’s Liacouras Center on August 6, 2024 in Philadelphia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“At the time he announced his involvement as a Macau Fellow, Mr. Walz also had significant credit card debt,” Comer wrote, noting that Walz headlined the 27th National Congress of the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association in Minnesota in 2019.
“Governor Walz spoke side-by-side with the president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, which the State Department exposed a year later as ‘a Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments,’ including efforts to ‘directly and maliciously influence state and local leaders to advance the global agenda of the People’s Republic of China,'” Comer wrote.
Comer said Walz himself “admitted that he does not fall into the category that China necessarily has to have a hostile relationship.”
“Despite bipartisan efforts to identify and defeat the CCP’s all-out war on America, Governor Walz continues his problematic relationships with entities and individuals of concern,” Comer wrote.
Comer also referred to a meeting between Walz and Consul General Zhao Jian in March 2024 to discuss “Sino-American relations and subnational cooperation.”
Walz said in 2010 that the plan to cut Social Security and raise the retirement age was “very similar” to his approach.
“Despite his knowledge of and condemnation of human rights abuses in communist China, Governor Walz has said he ‘welcomes the achievements of the Chinese people and recognizes that some in the Chinese government are committed to greater rule of law,'” Comer wrote.
Governor Tim Walz, candidate for Vice President, delivers a speech at the 46th AFSCME International Convention in Los Angeles on August 13, 2024. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Comer is now calling on the FBI to assist the committee’s investigation and provide documents and information on Chinese companies or individuals with whom Walz may have worked or collaborated.
Comer also requests all records between the FBI and Walz or his governor’s office that contain warnings or indications regarding the collaboration of subnational government officials with the PRC, the Chinese Communist Party, and the Chinese Communist Party’s proxies.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Comer said: “The CCP has sought to destroy the United States through coordinated influence and infiltration campaigns targeting every aspect of American life, including our own elected officials.”
“Americans should be deeply concerned that Governor Walz, Kamala Harris’s vice presidential running mate, has a long-standing and close relationship with China,” Comer said. “Mr. Walz has visited China dozens of times, served as a fellow at a Chinese institution affiliated with the CCP, and spoken with the president of a Chinese organization that the State Department has exposed as a CCP attempt to influence and co-opt local leaders.”
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Comer added: “FBI informants recently told the Committee that the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force is investigating CCP activities similar to China’s ties to Governor Walz.”
“The American people have a right to fully understand how close the relationship is between Governor Walz and China,” Comer told Fox News Digital.
The Harris-Walz campaign team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
