From his military record to signing transgender-friendly bills as governor, the history of Walz is coming to light after Kamala Harris chose him as her vice presidential nominee this week.
Another issue the public is learning about is Walz’s ties to China that go back to the 1990s. He has traveled there more than 30 times, beginning with a high school teaching assignment. He even honeymooned there and started a tour company to take high school students.
Walz, 60, is fascinated by China and its culture but has publicly criticized its human-rights record when he served in Congress, according to similar articles published this week in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Gordon Chang, a well-known expert on China, tells AFN he is concerned because Walz has stated he doesn’t view China as an adversary of the United States.
“Unfortunately, China doesn't agree,” Chang says. “It believes it must have adversarial relations with us because it sees the United States as an existential threat.”
China, in fact, is well known for viewing the U.S. as its biggest obstacle to becoming a world superpower. In business and politics, the Chinese Community Party uses handshakes and capitalism to increase its power around the world while monitoring, jailing, and torturing its own citizens at home.
Chang’s concerns about Walz were mirrored in another story about him, this time in a Reuters story. Dean Cheng, another expert on China, told the wire service he doesn’t see how Walz can suggest China is not a U.S. adversary.
“It is harder and harder to see exactly where there is supposed to be cooperation,” Cheng told Reuters. “Which Chinese goals overlap with ours? Which Chinese behaviors are we prepared to countenance, since China is not in the habit of making concessions?"
A not-so-subtle question about allegiance
It doesn't help Walz that his critics are comparing him to a socialist, or even a communist, due to his political stances that have drifted from moderate to radical over the years. In a campaign phone call last week, on behalf of Harris, he remarked about socialism and "neighborliness."
Walz is also being criticized for comments about free speech he made on MSNBC. "There's no guarantee to free speech on misinformation, or hate speech, and especially around our democracy," he said.
Walz's 1989 honeymoon trip to China is also being compared to Sen. Bernie Sanders, a socialist, and his 10-day honeymoon trip to the former Soviet Union.
In an X post this week, New York Post reporter Miranda Devine took a not-so-subtle dig at the V.P. nominee and his ties to China. Quoting from an old newspaper article, she pointed out his first visit to China was "arranged by a friend of Walz in China's foreign affairs department." "I bet," she wrote.
Chang, replying on X to Devine, suggests that China could have been "grooming" Walz. "We do not need a CCP agent anywhere near the Oval Office," Change bluntly wrote.
“When you look at what Tim Walz has said about China,” Chang tells AFN, “you've got to be deeply concerned about how he feels about China, the regime, and what he would do to defend the United States against the unrelenting attacks, the malicious attacks, from Communist China."
