Serious security concerns have been raised about Vice Prsident Kamala Harris's running mate, Gov. Tim Walz. The governor's ties to the Chinese Communist Party are not only strong, but likely serious enough to be seen as a possible security risk for the nation.

A letter acquired exclusively by The Post shows that Rep. Jim Banks is pressuring the Pentagon to provide answers regarding the "obvious security risk" that Walz, presented to the US government as a result of his numerous travels to China while serving in the National Guard, as The New York Post reported.

According to Brian J. Cavanaugh, a former senior director of the National Security Council in the Trump administration, these security procedures were put in place "to mitigate the risk of foreign intelligence activities and ensure that individuals are aware of potential threats."

Official Comments

“Regarding the case of Governor Tim Walz’s visits to China while he served in the Army National Guard, the security risks would depend on several factors, including the nature of his interactions, the level of classified information he had access to, and his compliance with reporting requirements,” Cavanaugh said.

“If Governor Walz failed to report foreign travel or take action on any mitigation measures, the risks of him jeopardizing national security are very real, especially given his tenor and tone towards his time in China,” he assessed.

In addition to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and other applicable federal statutes, Cavanaugh cited directives from the Department of Defense that regulate the processes for reporting on foreign travel.

His Comments

“These laws and orders mandate the protection of classified information and outline the responsibilities of clearance holders, including the requirement to report foreign contacts and travel that might pose a risk to national security,” he said.

Walz, who is now sixty years old and is fluent in Mandarin, made his first trip to China in 1989, when he was a college graduate working as an American history and English instructor for the WorldTeach program in Foshan, which is located in southern China.

“No matter how long I live, I will never be treated that well again,” he recalled in 1990. “They gave me more gifts than I could bring home. It was an excellent experience.”

As part of an exchange program with Beijing that the couple had helped to establish for high school students, Walz and his wife, Gwen, traveled back to Beijing three years later.

Even More Trips

Walz asserts that he has personally traveled to China on as many as thirty separate occasions despite the fact that the couple went on to make a great number of additional trips.

“I’ve lived in China, and as I’ve said, I’ve been there about 30 times,” Walz told Agri-Pulse in 2016. “I don’t fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship. I totally disagree.”

Walz was described as being treated "like royalty" in an interview with a former colleague published in the Chinese-language outlet Initium Media.

His wife disclosed that he deliberately scheduled their wedding for the same day as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which occurred five years ago.

More Details

“He wanted to have a date he’ll always remember,” said Gwen Walz, according to a report in the Guardian.

He served for 24 years in the Army National Guard, rising through the ranks to command sergeant major, during which time he went on numerous deployments with his field artillery regiment.

The Chinese Communist Party was able to readily take advantage of Walz's "naïve" optimism, according to Banks, an officer in the US Navy Reserve who served in Afghanistan.

“Walz chose to have his honeymoon in China and even bizarrely planned his wedding date to coincide with the 5th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre,” he noted to Austin, later adding that the school teacher and later US congressman was also “willing to repeatedly accept gifts.”