Seventy-nine Democrats voted against a bill that would effectively ban Chinese defense companies from doing business with the U.S. government. The Harris-Walz campaign team, however, declined to comment on the bill because of concerns about Governor Tim Walz’s ties to an institute that did business with one of the companies named in the bill.
The Biosecure Act, HR 8333, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 306 to 81, with 79 Democrats and two Republicans voting against it. Sponsored by Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, the bill would not allow federal agencies to “procure or obtain biotechnology equipment or services manufactured or provided by a questionable biotechnology company.”
One of the companies affected, the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), has been classified as a “Chinese military company” by the Pentagon and has worked extensively with a medical research institute that has close ties to Walz. Fox News Digital has already reported this.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Harris-Waltz campaign several times over the past six days to request comment on its support for the Biosecure Act, but declined to comment on the campaign’s positions.
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The House Oversight Committee is investigating Governor Walz’s ties to China. (Getty Images)
BGI’s presence in the United States was brought to the fore again this week after Fox News reported that the House Oversight Committee was aware of a BGI-operated machine in use at Los Alamos, the nation’s most secret government laboratory.
“Today, I supported my bill, the BIOSECURE Act, in the House of Representatives. This legislation is the first step toward ending our dependence on Chinese biotech and pharmaceutical companies while protecting the genetic data of millions of Americans from the CCP,” Wenstrup said. posted on X shortly before the bill was passed.
“From collecting genetic data for research to aiding and abetting the CCP in genocide, China’s biotech companies have proven they will stop at nothing to support the CCP. It’s time we reclaim our independence and protect healthcare for all Americans.”
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Earlier this year, the House Oversight Committee announced that it was investigating Governor Tim Walz’s ties to China. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier this year, the House Oversight Committee announced it was investigating Walz’s ties to China, and on Thursday The Washington Examiner reported that the investigation was expanded and documents were requested.
Walz briefly worked as a teacher in China and traveled to Guangdong in 1989 as part of a teaching abroad program to teach English and American history. Walz made dozens of trips to China and The Wall Street JournalCiting local media reports, he said that he used a trip to China in 1994 as his honeymoon and that he set the date of his wedding to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the crackdown on Tiananmen Square.
“I have lived in China and, as I said, have been there about 30 times… I am not in the category that China necessarily has to have a hostile relationship. I completely disagree and think we need to be tough on China’s actions in the South China Sea, but there are many areas where we can work together,” Walz said in an interview with Agri-Pulse Communications.
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China’s President Xi Jinping is welcomed in Rome, Italy, March 23, 2019. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
In 1990, he was quoted in a local newspaper as saying, “No matter how long I live, I will never be treated this well again.”
“They gave me more gifts than I could take home. It was a great experience,” Walz said, adding that he was “treated extraordinarily well.”
The remark came in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and amid ongoing and still ongoing massive human rights violations by the communist regime.
Morgan Phillips and Cameron Cawthorne of Fox News Digital contributed to this report
