Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has faced growing scrutiny from GOP critics over the Minnesota governor's potential ties to the People's Republic of China and its ruling Communist Party.
Although Walz's team recently clarified the number of trips he has taken to China, one expert warned that Walz's "continuing contacts" with the global powerhouse are "very disturbing."
"Tim Walz's business educational travel adventures does not appear to have been self-sustaining, does not appear to be profit driven," Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang said on "Mornings with Maria" Monday.
"Clearly, it was the Communist Party's United Front Work Department, which is the part of the party that subverts foreign governments, that not only approved of that business, but probably also funded it."
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The Minnesota Democrat corrected the record that he was in China for the Tiananmen Square protests during the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate earlier this month. Also, a Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson recently clarified to Minnesota Public Radio that the number of visits Walz made to China was "closer to 15 times."
"Tim Walz, who's had this continuing relationship with the United Front Work Department, even as governor of Minnesota... which means that his contact with the party has spanned this century," Chang observed.
According to Walz's own testimony, he first went to China in 1989 amid the Tiananmen Square uprising. Walz was part of the first delegation of American teachers to ever go to the communist nation during the trip. He was a participant in Harvard's WorldTeach program, which gave Walz the opportunity to live and teach young students in China for a year.
Walz loved his time so much that he continued to take annual trips back to China with his students, eventually setting up a company dedicated to taking students on trips to China and other international destinations.
Walz and his wife honeymooned in China on one of their trips in 1993. Walz's annual trips with students took place between 1993 and the early 2000s, before he began running for public office.
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According to Politico and Semafor, Walz served on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and urged former President Trump to end the trade war with China.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., launched an investigation into Walz's alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party shortly after he was nominated.
Fox News' Alec Schemmel and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
