America First Legal has launched an inquiry into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz due to his significant connections with China.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer noted that Walz has visited China over 30 times, operated a company organizing trips for American children to China, and had connections with Chinese institutions.
The FBI informed Comer that “the Bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force investigates CCP activity that is similar to China’s engagement with Governor Walz.”
Comer pointed out that Walz once even gave a speech alongside an individual linked to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence effort.
Several Minnesota universities have hosted Confucius Institutes, programs previously criticized for promoting CCP propaganda.
The institute is “an entity advancing Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign on U.S. campuses and K-12 classrooms,” former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote.
“Universities around the country and around the world are examining the Confucius Institutes’ curriculum and the scope of Beijing’s influence in their education systems. The United States wants to ensure that students on U.S. campuses have access to Chinese language and cultural offerings free from the manipulation of the Chinese Communist Party and its proxies,” Pompeo added.
One program has remained open even after many were shut down amid government pressure.
AFL is seeking all records related to Walz’s connections with China and the Confucius Institute as concerns grow over potential CCP influence in Minnesota’s education system.
“Despite pressure from the Trump Administration and Congress forcing many institutions of higher education to close their affiliated Confucius Institutes, the one at SCSU remained one of only ten that were still open by September 2023,” AFL stated.
“The Trump Administration and its bipartisan partners in the Congress had no illusions about the Chinese Communist Party’s nature and intentions. Accordingly, they took strong action to expose and terminate the CCP’s influence operations in the United States, including its many Confucius Centers around the country, and to protect our research enterprise,” America First Legal Senior Vice President Reed D. Rubinstein stated.
“By contrast, Gov. Walz’s long and troubling history of sympathetic engagement with the Chinese Communist Party and its instrumentalities suggests, at best, a blind disregard for our national security. The truth about Gov. Walz must be exposed,” Rubinstein concluded.
