Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, boasted about Minnesota internet hosting a number of prime Chinese language leaders in a letter unearthed by Fox Information Digital.
The Minnesota Worldwide Chinese language College showcased a 2021 letter from Walz on its YouTube channel celebrating the tenth anniversary of the varsity’s Chinese language New Yr.
“Minnesota has a longstanding relationship with the individuals of China,” Walz mentioned within the letter. “The state has promoted Minnesota’s connections with China and has hosted quite a few senior Chinese language leaders for many years. 1000’s of Minnesotans declare ancestral connections to China, which has helped foster quite a few ties between Minnesota and China.”
“These ties are quickly increasing by way of the expansion of training, commerce, and funding alternatives between our two peoples,” he added earlier than congratulating the varsity on a “essential milestone” and “educating our language learners and future leaders the significance of talking a number of languages and of being international residents.”
Gov. Tim Walz and Chinese language flags. ((Photograph by Anna Moneymaker and Getty Photographs))
The letter got here inside 10 days of Zhao Jian, the Consul Common of China in Chicago, recording a four-minute greeting in Chinese language for the varsity, in keeping with the varsity’s YouTube channel. Walz’s connection to Jian has been beneath scrutiny in latest weeks after the Home Oversight Committee unearthed a gathering between Walz and Jian earlier this 12 months discussing “China-U.S. relations and sub-national cooperation.”
Whereas the specifics of the assembly aren’t clear, a 2022 report from the Biden administration’s Director of Nationwide Intelligence (DNI) highlighted how U.S.-based Chinese language consulates just like the one Walz met with “play an lively position” in “overseas affect operations” on behalf of the CCP.
DHS EMPLOYEE WARNED COLLEAGUES THAT WALZ’S NOMINATION ‘FEEDS INTO’ CHINA’S EFFORTS TO INFLUENCE DC
Walz’s decades-long ties to China have come again to hang-out him since Vice President Harris picked him to hitch her Democratic ticket because the vice presidential nominee. He labored briefly in China as a trainer, touring to Guangdong in 1989 for a teaching-abroad program to show English and American historical past.
Walz was initially believed to have made dozens of journeys to China over his lifetime, however a marketing campaign spokesperson would later attempt to stroll that quantity again and say he made roughly 15 visits to China, which included his honeymoon in 1994.
“I’ve lived in China and, as I’ve mentioned, I have been there about 30 occasions. . . . I do not fall into the class that China essentially must be an adversarial relationship. I completely disagree, and I believe we have to stand agency on what they’re doing within the South China Sea, however there’s many areas of cooperation we are able to work on,” Walz beforehand mentioned in an interview with Agri-Pulse Communications.
He additionally got here to the protection of the Chinese language Communist system, saying throughout a 1991 college lesson that it “implies that everybody is similar, and everybody shares.”
“The physician and the development employee make the identical,” he continued, in keeping with the Washington Free Beacon. “The Chinese language authorities and the place they work for present housing and 14 kg or about 30 kilos of rice per thirty days. They get meals and housing.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ VP decide Walz has confronted elevated scrutiny for his ties to China. (Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Photographs/LightRocket through Getty Photographs)
Walz was additionally quoted by a neighborhood outlet in 1990 reflecting on his visits to China, saying, “Regardless of how lengthy I dwell, I’ll by no means be handled that properly once more. . . . They gave me extra items than I might carry house. It was a wonderful expertise,” Walz mentioned, including that he had been “handled exceptionally properly.”
Fox Information Digital not too long ago reported {that a} Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) official sounded the alarm with colleagues about how Harris’ determination to choose Walz for the presidential ticket “feeds into” actions the Folks’s Republic of China (PRC) had been conducting “with him and native authorities,” warning that Beijing might “goal” him to exert affect on U.S. coverage.
“Walt’s [sic] bought the Vp,” reads the message, with the identification of the sender redacted. “You all don’t know how this feeds into what prc has been doing right here with him and native gov.”
The official added, “It’s critically a line of the intel. Goal somebody who’s perceived they’ll get to DC.”
Home Oversight Committee Chair James Comer wrote in a letter to Mayorkas on Tuesday that the Committee is “releasing the above message for instance of communications inside DHS’s possession during which DHS officers categorical concern concerning the CCP concentrating on politicians and their affect operations on the state and native ranges — and particularly, considerations concerning the CCP’s affect operations as they associated to Governor Walz.”

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a marketing campaign cease, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Manitowoc, Wis. (AP Photograph/Morry Gash)
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Walz has additionally confronted scrutiny for his ties to a Minnesota-based medical analysis institute with an extended monitor document of collaborating with a agency labeled by the Pentagon as a “Chinese language army firm” and with Chinese language officers with controversial ties to the CCP.
In 2014, Walz welcomed a delegation from China to the institute that included Wang Yanling, the vice governor of Henan Province and a Communist Social gathering physician. Yanling is listed as holding a number of positions within the Chinese language Communist Social gathering over the course of many a long time.
A number of members of the Chinese language Communist Social gathering have sat on the board of administrators on the Henan Most cancers Institute, in keeping with an archived model of the group’s web site.
Fox Information Digital reached out to Harris-Walz marketing campaign.
Fox Information’ Brooke Singman and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.