On Tuesday, America First Legal (AFL) opened an investigation into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s extensive, multi-decade entanglement with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
On August 16, 2024, Rep. James Comer launched an investigation into Gov. Walz’s engagement with China. Rep. Comer reported that Gov. Waltz had visited the PRC approximately 30 times; operated Educational Travel Adventures, Inc., a for-profit enterprise that organized trips to China for American children for over a decade—between 1991 and 2003; and while serving in Congress, was a fellow at the Macau Polytechnic University, a Chinese institution that characterizes itself as having a “long-held devotion to and love for the motherland.”
Also, it appears Minnesota’s institutions of higher education welcomed and collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) front organizations known as Confucius Institutes during Gov. Walz’s tenure. The “Confucius Institutes” are a key aspect of the Chinese Communist Party’s “soft power” influence operations in the United States. Apparently, there were at least two Confucius Institutes in Minnesota, hosted by the University of Minnesota and St. Cloud State University (SCSU), during Gov. Walz’s time in office. SCSU’s Master of Science in Information Assurance program was designated as a National Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity by both DHS and NSA. 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. Since then, the National Association of Scholars reports that the Communist Party has shifted focus to “Confucius Classroom” initiatives in American primary school systems, including the one it operates in St. Cloud, MN. National security experts have also highlighted Governor Walz’s promotion of a Minnesota-based medical research center with a history of working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
It is not clear what, if anything, Gov. Walz has done to prevent the CCP from using Minnesota’s taxpayer-funded schools and universities as propaganda outlets or, as a recent House report documents, from taking advantage of his State’s universities to develop and advance the PRC’s semiconductors, artificial intelligence, or hypersonic, nuclear, or bio-weapons.
To shed light on Gov. Walz’s CCP ties, AFL has requested:
- All records, communications, or calendar entries containing “Confucius Institute;”
- Any communications with employees of the Ministry of Education of the PRC, the Beijing Genomics Institute, or members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP);
- Records related to Tim Walz’s connections with and travel to the People’s Republic of China.
The American people have a right to know the truth about Gov. Walz.
Statement from Reed D. Rubinstein, America First Legal Senior Vice President:
“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. 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,” said Reed D. Rubinstein.
Read the Minnesota Deputy General Counsel FOIA here, DOJ FOIA here, and FBI FOIA here.
