Tim Walz hosted Chinese Communist Party officials in his high school classroom: report

As a former Nebraska teacher, Minnesota Governor and Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Walz once hosted a delegation of Chinese teachers linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) intelligence apparatus, according to a new report.

In February 1996, local newspaper the Alliance Times-Herald reported on a visit to Walz’s Alliance High School social studies class by a trio of “Chinese educators” – Ning Ziheng of the Macao Political Institute and Ye Guoqiang and Yi Hongtao of the Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education – as part of a national tour to “study the American education system.”

The Daily Caller reports that, according to Chinese government and academic records, Guoqiang and Hongtao had both been CCP members for decades at the time of the visit, that Guoqiang was deputy party secretary for the Guangzhou Institute CCP committee, and Hongtao was both a member of the committee as well and director of the institute’s Foreign Affairs Office.

Further, the Guangzhou Institute is a “group member” of the Chinese People’s Association For Friendship With Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which in turn is a part of China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) intelligence and influence service. The U.S. State Department has described CPAFFC as a “Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments” that aims to “directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s global agenda.”

Walz, who had previously taught in China, had a relationship with Ziheng as far back as 1992, according to the Times-Herald. Ziheng does not appear to have been a CCP member himself, but served as a translator for the two who were during the 1996 tour. Further, Walz took American students to visit the Guangzhou Institute during his own trip to China.

“Governor Tim Walz’s documented relationships with Chinese Communist Party affiliated entities and officials bears hallmarks of a CCP infiltration and influence campaign,” said Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chair of the House Oversight & Accountability Committee. “FBI briefers recently informed the Oversight Committee that the Bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force investigates CCP subnational influence operations and activity that is similar to how China has engaged with Governor Walz. The American people deserve to fully understand how deep Governor Walz’s relationship with the CCP goes and the Oversight Committee will continue to press for answers.”

This is not the first time Walz has been accused of being too close to China’s authoritarian government. He honeymooned in China and has previously said the United States need not be in an “adversarial relationship” with the CCP regime, and last month LifeSiteNews reported that as governor of Minnesota, he has long supported the University of Minnesota’s Hormel Institute, which is associated with China’s notorious Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).