Harris campaign remains silent on House bill banning contracts with ‘Chinese military company’ over Walz ties

Seventy-nine Democrats voted against a bill that would ban Chinese military companies from doing federal business in the United States, but the Harris-Walz campaign declined to say where it stood on the legislation because of concerns about Gov. Tim Walz’s ties to an institute that did business with one of the companies targeted by the bill.

The biosecurity bill, H.R. 8333, passed the House by a vote of 306 to 81, with 79 Democrats and two Republicans voting against. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, would not allow federal agencies to “procure or obtain any biotechnology equipment or services produced or provided by a covered biotechnology company.”

One of the companies targeted by the law, the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), has been labeled a “Chinese military company” by the Pentagon and has done extensive work with a medical research institute with close ties to Walz, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign several times over the past six days to ask whether they support the Biosecure Act, but they declined to say what the campaign’s position is.

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BGI’s presence in the United States was brought to the fore again this week after Fox News Digital reported that the House Oversight Committee was aware of a BGI-operated machine being used at Los Alamos, the country’s most secret government lab.

“I spoke today in support of my bill, the BIOSECURE Act, in the House of Representatives. This legislation is the first step toward breaking our dependence on Chinese biotech and pharmaceutical companies while protecting the genetic data of millions of Americans from the CCP,” Wenstrup wrote on X shortly before the bill passed.

“From collecting genetic data to research to aiding and abetting the CCP in genocide, Chinese biotech companies have proven that they will stop at nothing to aid the CCP. It is time for us to reclaim our independence and protect the health care of all Americans.”

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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 had expanded and documents had been requested.

Walz worked briefly in China as a teacher, traveling to Guangdong in 1989 for a teaching abroad program to teach English and American history. Walz made dozens of trips to China, and the Wall Street Journal, citing local news reports, reported that a trip to China doubled as his honeymoon in 1994, and that he planned his wedding date to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

“I’ve lived in China and, as I said, I’ve been there about 30 times… I don’t think China necessarily has to have an adversarial relationship. I totally disagree and I think we need to stand firm on what they’re doing in the South China Sea, but there are many areas of cooperation that we can work on,” Walz said in an interview with Agri-Pulse Communications.

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In 1990, a local media outlet also quoted him as saying of his visits to China: “No matter how long I live, I will never be treated so well again.”

“They gave me more gifts than I could possibly take home. It was a great experience,” Walz said, adding that he was “treated exceptionally well.”

The statement comes in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and in a context of massive human rights violations perpetrated by the communist regime.

Morgan Phillips and Cameron Cawthorne of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.