Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ running mate, has a deep affection for China. He was one of the first Americans to be approved by the government to teach in the country.
Walz, 60, went to China straight out of college on a Harvard University program and taught in Guangdong province shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in 1989.
Later he would go on a honeymoon to China with his wife Gwen, taking a group of 60 young people with him
In the 1990s, the couple founded a company that sent high school students to China every summer for about a decade.
Walz has been to China dozens of times, including on trade missions, and calls his experiences there “wonderful.”
His admiration for the country has led Donald Trump and Republicans to attack him as the US and China enter a period of increasing economic and military rivalry.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks before Vice President Kamala Harris on March 14, 2024 in St. Paul, Minnesota
Tim Walz’s first trip to China was reported in his local newspaper
Walz, who speaks some Mandarin, recently said he did not accept that China should be an “adversary.”
He said, ‘I’ve lived in China and, as I said, I’ve been there about 30 times. If someone tells you they’re an expert on China, they’re probably not telling you the truth, because it’s a complex country.
“But it is of crucial importance to us. I am not in the category that China necessarily has to have an adversarial relationship, I absolutely disagree with that.”
Responding to Walz’s choice, Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance accused him in Philadelphia of wanting to send jobs to China.
Vance said, “Tim Walz is a guy who wants to move more and more American manufacturing jobs to China.
“He said it on camera in the name of the green energy scam. If you care about the environment, and I certainly do, why are you moving American manufacturing jobs to the dirtiest economy in the world? Why not keep them here, in Pennsylvania, where they’re really needed?”
“To have a guy who wants to move manufacturing jobs to China? There’s no way Americans are going to believe that. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Tim Walz in an undated photo from the Mankato West High School Alumni for Walz Facebook Group. Walz is seen here on a school trip
After his first trip to China, where he taught at Foshan Number One High School, Walz told his local newspaper, the Alliance Star-Herald in Nebraska, “No matter how long I live, I’ll never be treated that well again. They gave me more presents than I could take home. It was a wonderful experience.”
He said, “China was coming, so I went,” and he expressed his admiration for how hard his Chinese students at Foshan No. 1 High School worked.
He said, “If they had the right leadership, there was no limit to what they could do. They are such kind, generous, capable people. They gave and gave and gave to me. Going there was one of the best things I ever did.”
When Walz was a teacher in the United States, he had a Chinese banner hanging in his office.
Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate
A local newspaper report by Tim Walz about his travels to China
According to a 1993 report in the Alliance Times-Herald, Chinese authorities paid “much of the cost” as students raised money for the trip to the country that summer.
Walz allegedly told the students to downplay their “Americanness” during the trip.
A Chinese university reportedly contributed to the cost of food, rooms and transportation.
The following year, seven students reportedly received $800 “scholarships” to cover expenses.
The scholarships were sponsored by Walz, his wife and “the Chinese government.”
According to a 1993 report in Nebraska’s Alliance Times-Herald, Chinese authorities paid “much of the cost” while students raised money for that summer’s trip.
Walz told students to downplay their “Americanness”
A Chinese university is said to have contributed to the costs of food, rooms and transportation
JD Vance accused Walz of wanting to move American jobs to China
The following year, seven students reportedly received $800 “scholarships” to cover expenses.
The scholarships were sponsored by Walz, his wife and “the Chinese government.”
Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, called it “striking” that “the Chinese government funded Tim Walz’s student exchange trips to China in the 1990s.
‘According to Walz himself, it was unusual for the government to “pay a large portion of the costs.”’