Walz Under Fire: Appointee To State Board Has Deep Connections With CCP-Linked Group

Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has come under fire for appointing a Chinese lawyer with longstanding ties to a CCP-friendly political faction to a key state advisory board.

The lawyer, Chang Wang, was first appointed by Walz in May 2020 to the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, which advises the governor, legislature, and other state agencies on promoting "economic, social, legal and political equality" for Asian Pacific Minnesotans. As of now, Wang is the interim chair of the council, with his term set to expire in January 2025. According to the council's annual report, it spent over half a million dollars of taxpayer money in 2023 according to the Daily Caller.

According to the report, Wang has ties to the China Association for Promoting Democracy (CAPD), a political party in China that operates under the strict supervision of the CCP - which the Caller uncovered through "a review of Chinese government announcements, archived University of Minnesota records and Chinese-language publications written by Wang himself."

CAPD is one of the handful of alternative Chinese political parties allowed to operate in the communist nation. Like China’s other minor parties, CAPD is “loyal” to the CCP and continues “to function within the structure of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),” which is the country’s top political advisory body, according to the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress.

CAPD is allowed to operate in China based upon their organization’s stated promise to “rally closely around” the CCP’s Central Committee and play a role as advisors and assistants to the CCP, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency. -Daily Caller

According to the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, CAPD's operational status is based on its "stated promise to 'rally closely around' the CCP’s Central Committee and play a role as advisors and assistants to the CCP," as reported by Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

Records show that Wang, since joining the Minnesota state council, has been recognized by the Chinese government multiple times. For example, the Chinese government granted him a title and even accepted a policy research proposal he submitted. When asked about his relationship with CAPD, Wang replied in an email to the DCNF - saying: "My elderly parents are my only ties to China." Meanwhile, Wang’s profile on the University of Minnesota’s website appears to have scrubbed his CAPD affiliation, though an archived version contains it.

Wang has also disclosed in the past that his parents were "senior scientists" at "Academia Sinica," the former name of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). CAS reports directly to China's State Council, and "much of its work contributes to products for military use," according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Steve Yates, China Policy Initiative chair at the America First Policy Institute and a former Chinese language analyst for the National Security Agency, pointed out the significance of this connection: "For someone to have two parents in that entity, it basically is the equivalent of being not just a made man, but a made family."

Further complicating the matter, Wang has stated that he works as a senior associate professor of law at the Beijing-based China University of Political Science and Law, and the university's website still lists him as faculty.

Walz’s connections with China and its political structures have been a focus of Republican lawmakers. Kentucky Rep. James Comer, for example, sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting information about "any Chinese entity or individual with whom Mr. Walz may have engaged or partnered."

Walz's history with China is extensive. He has traveled to the country approximately 30 times and even worked for Macau Polytechnic University while serving in Congress, as noted in Comer’s letter. Previous media reports have also unearthed past comments from Walz that appear to praise Chinese communism. For instance, Walz reportedly told high school students in 1991 that communism "means that everyone is the same and everyone shares."

More recently, the DCNF reported that Walz has attended several events organized by members of a Minnesota nonprofit affiliated with a CCP influence and intelligence agency. Members of the nonprofit and related organizations even held a fundraiser for Walz’s gubernatorial reelection in 2022. Yates, commenting on the appointment of Wang, questioned, "You would think that there would be some screening. Of what possible value-add is someone with ties to that entity in China to the citizens of the United States or to Minnesota, and why would a governor with a generation of experience coming and going to the People’s Republic of China want someone from that world having privileged access to advise leaders in Minnesota on any issue?"

"@GovTimWalz could explain away 1 or 2 facts, but he can't explain away the pattern & the @DailyCaller just dropped an investigation a day or so ago, which showed Walz maintaining regular contact w/ Communist Party front organizations in MN.

So, we go back to the 1990s we have… pic.twitter.com/SSeuTVA9in

— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) August 29, 2024

Despite the word "democracy" in its name, CAPD is described as "a political party that accepts the leadership of the CCP and cooperates with the CCP as a participant in socialism with Chinese characteristics." Its members are mainly intellectuals working in academia, science, media, and related fields. As Yates points out, "When you are engaging entities from communist countries that have the word ‘democracy’ in them, you have a near 100% chance that they’re not really about democracy. You’re talking about organizations that are meant to interact with people and groups in the Free World on behalf of the ultimate authority in the PRC: the CCP."

John Dotson, deputy director of the Global Taiwan Institute, echoed similar concerns: "CAPD is one of what the CCP calls the ‘eight democratic parties’ that operate alongside the ruling CCP, in the effort to provide a veneer of pluralism to the [Chinese] system." Dotson further emphasized, "Anyone who is a member of one of the ‘eight democratic parties’ should be understood as a CCP member, subject to Party directives, etcetera."

The DCNF uncovered Wang’s CAPD membership through a review of multiple archived profiles in both English and Chinese. One archived version of Wang’s 2022 bio on the University of Minnesota’s China Center website identified him as "one of the twenty-five members serving on the Central Civil and Judiciary Committee of China Association For Promoting Democracy, the third largest political party in mainland China." However, between January and July 2023, references to Wang's membership in CAPD were removed from his China Center bio. The China Center did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment. Meanwhile, CAPD’s Chinese-language website still lists Wang as a member of its Central Civil and Judiciary Committee and identifies him as a professor at the Institute of Comparative Law at China University of Political Science and Law.

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