NW Kentucky News

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has initiated an investigation into Minnesota Governor Timothy Walz, recently announced as Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential running mate. This follows reports detailing the governor’s longstanding connections to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities and officials.

In a letter addressed to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray, Chairman Comer requested information, documents, and communications related to the CCP-connected entities and officials with whom Governor Walz has engaged. The letter also seeks any warnings or advice the FBI may have provided to Governor Walz about U.S. political figures being targeted by or recruited for CCP influence operations.

"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 Comer. "Americans should be deeply concerned that Governor Walz, Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential running mate, has a longstanding and cozy relationship with China."

Comer continued: "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 similar to China’s engagement with Governor Walz. The American people deserve to fully understand how deep Governor Walz’s relationship with China goes."

Reports indicate that Governor Walz's ties to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) date back several decades. According to Star-Herald reporting from 1993, while working as a teacher, Mr. Walz organized a trip to the PRC for Alliance High School students with costs covered by the Chinese government. In 1994, he established “Educational Travel Adventures, Inc.” which coordinated annual student trips to the PRC until 2003; this corporation was reportedly dissolved four days after he took congressional office in 2007.

Governor Walz is estimated to have visited China approximately 30 times since his first trip there. During his tenure in Congress, he served as a fellow at Macau Polytechnic University—a Chinese institution characterized by its “long held devotion to and love for the motherland.” Additionally, Governor Walz spoke alongside the President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries—an organization identified by the Department of State as tasked with co-opting subnational governments in efforts “to directly and malignly influence state and local leaders.”

The full letter sent by Chairman Comer can be accessed online.