EXCLUSIVE — Rep. James Comer (R-KY), House Oversight Committee chairman, is expanding his investigation into Gov. Tim Walz‘s (D-MN) ties to China, citing a recent Washington Examiner report on Walz promoting a China-linked research institute.
In a letter Thursday to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Comer raised concerns over Walz’s promotion, as Minnesota’s governor, of a group called the Hormel Institute, which the Washington Examiner reported in September partners with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The top Republican is re-upping his request from August for the agency to turn over any documents on Chinese entities Walz has reportedly been linked to over the years
“Recent reports indicate Mr. Walz, while in Congress, ‘helped secure over $2 million’ and ‘pushed for a $5 million federal earmark’ for the Hormel Institute, which is a ‘Minnesota-based medical research center with a history of working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China,’” Comer wrote in the letter to Wray. “The Wuhan Institute of Virology is closely connected to the CCP and has been implicated in the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Comer’s letter also cited a report from Fox News detailing the Hormel Institute’s track record of collaborating with the Beijing Genomics Institute, which the Pentagon labeled a “Chinese military company” earlier this year. The Hormel Institute’s parent, the University of Minnesota, denied in a recent statement to the Washington Examiner that the institute has a “formal affiliation” with the WIV or the Beijing Genomics Institute.
However, journal records show that researchers from the Hormel Institute work on projects with personnel from the WIV and the Beijing Genomics Institute.
To the House Oversight Committee chairman, Walz’s “documented relations with CCP affiliates is inexcusable,” according to the letter.
Since Walz was announced as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Republicans have blasted Walz for apparent China ties and sympathies.
Walz said in 2016 that he does not “fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship” with the United States.
According to multiple reports, Walz has traveled to China 30 times — including for his honeymoon. Comer cited in the letter how Walz previously organized a partially CCP-sponsored trip to China for his students while he taught at a high school in Minnesota.
The lawmaker is also looking into Walz’s prior teaching fellowship until at least 2007 at China’s Macau Polytechnic University. Macau Polytechnic University pushes the Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure program and key element of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign influence efforts, the New York Post reported.
“The FBI appears to deem these concerning facts unpersuasive to require its cooperation with a congressional investigation,” Comer told Wray, pointing to new revelations on Walz’s ties to the Hormel Institute.
“The former executive director of the Hormel Institute, Dr. Zigang Dong, ‘abruptly stepped down from his post’ in 2019; ‘[a]round the same time, it was revealed [he] was involved in an FBI probe … investigating his ‘possible failure to report foreign backing when applying for grants,’” Comer wrote in the letter. “Mr. Dong is ‘a longtime … donor to Mr. Walz’s political career,’ according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.”
In his letter, Comer noted that the FBI informed the House Oversight Committee that the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force “investigates this kind of CCP activity.”
The Foreign Influence Task Force was established in 2017 by Wray “to identify and counteract malign foreign influence operations targeting the United States.”
Comer wrote in the letter that he “is concerned that Mr. Walz’s involvement with Chinese entities and officials may have allowed the CCP to influence his decision-making as a congressman and governor and potentially would allow the CCP to influence the White House should Mr. Walz be elected vice president.”
He is asking for any communications between the FBI and Walz’s office “pertaining to warnings or guidance about subnational government officials engaging with the People’s Republic of China, CCP, and the CCP’s proxies,” according to a copy of the letter.
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In addition, the Republican seeks any FBI-housed documents and information on the Beijing Genomics Institute, the Hormel Institute, and Zigang. Comer listed a response deadline of Sept. 19.
The FBI declined to comment.
