Revealed: Iowa Republican congressman touting self-published thriller about Chinese AI attack SKIPPED hearings on real-life national security threats from Beijing

Iowa Congressman Zach Nunn is trying to cash in on a self-published thriller about the threat of Chinese AI, espionage, and the future of warfare - despite missing several hearings on the real-life threats of China, the Daily Mail can reveal. 

The Republican has promoted the book heavily online - soliciting payments via his personal Venmo account - and leaning heavily on his national security credentials to market the novel. 

Nunn's book 'Stratagem' is described on his self-built website as a 'breakneck thriller that propels the reader into the future of technology and conflict', with a quote from a New York Times bestselling author P.W. Singer saying it 'explores how next-generation AI, global espionage, and information warfare will all reshape our security.'

The site trumpets his credentials as a 'combat-tested veteran, counterintelligence officer, and sitting Member of Congress serving on the Select Committee to Counter China.'

And the lawmaker is no slouch, having introduced six China-related bills in Congress.

But attendance records show that since his appointment to the congressional committee in February 2025, he has skipped multiple hearings on the very topic he has been fictionalizing in his debut novel.

On April 16 this year he did not attend a hearing on 'China's Campaign to Steal America's AI Edge, despite voting records showing he was in Washington, DC at the time.

He missed a hearing on April 9, 2025 on 'How the Chinese Communist Party Exploits American Retirees and Undermines National Security', and on July 23 for a hearing on 'Strategies to Counter PRC Economic Coercion Against Democracies'.

On December 11, he failed to attend a hearing on 'China's Auto Threat to America'.

Voting records show he was in Washington, DC on April 9 and December 11 last year, prompting outrage from his Democratic opponents.

They are calling out the congressman for skipping his hearing, with a searing claim that he is 'more concerned with climbing the political ladder and using his office to enrich himself and his donors than doing his real job of working for Iowans’.

'The good news for Nunn is that he’ll have plenty of time to solicit Venmos for his self-published thriller when Iowans fire him in November,’ said Katie Smith, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Nunn's spokesman, Mark Matava, defended the lawmaker's record as a 'China expert' who 'secured more provisions in last year's defense bill than any member of Congress, and helped pass legislation to prevent the CCP from buying Iowa farmland and importing deadly fentanyl.'

Bills he introduced include the AI PLAN Act, which requires government departments to work together to tackle AI-powered threats from China and other adversaries, and the United States-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership Act, which pushes for collaboration with Taiwan on defense technology.

Two copies of Nunn's new book can be seen carefully placed on Nunn's bookshelf in the background of a Fox News interview last month.

The Congressman also linked from his website to a two-minute excerpt of an audio version of the thriller, posted on YouTube.

The site has a breathless description painting the picture of a geopolitical page-turner by the veteran and lawmaker.

'A deadlocked presidential race has triggered the first Contingent Election in two hundred years, throwing power not to the people, but to a bitterly divided Congress,' said the blurb on Nunn's site describing the plot for the novel.

'As Washington tears itself apart, Beijing seizes the opening: a Chinese supercarrier group steams toward Cuba, shield for a rumored autonomous nuclear-launch submarine designed to lurk off US shores for years, ready for a first strike.'