Although he previously claimed to have journeyed to China about 30 times, Walz’s campaign recently revised that downward by half, claiming that the governor made 15 or so trips. However, as I’ve reported, Walz’s relationship with Beijing raises significant counterintelligence concerns. After all, taking that many trips to China, often with school groups, would have needed the approval of the Ministry of State Security, the powerful Communist Party secret police. We know nothing regarding what the MSS knows about Walz, but given that service’s habit of spying intensely on foreigners on their turf, our counterspies have obvious questions here, and they seem to be asking them — at least privately. ...

Therefore, we have two possibilities. Either Walz, between 1989 and his retirement from the National Guard in 2005, left a substantial paper trail with his SSO regarding his many trips to China, almost certainly including counterintelligence briefings — and perhaps security incident reports. Or he didn’t. Given Walz’s habit of being economical with the truth regarding his sojourns to China, it can’t be ruled out that he omitted to tell the SSO what he was required to. That seems unlikely, given that Walz’s regular China junkets were featured in local media and many people knew about his panda-hugging habits. Still, anything’s possible.