Tim Walz revises number of times he went to China

Vice President Kamala Harris’ working mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, mentioned he traveled to China a lot lower than he had initially highlighted in congressional hearings and media interviews. 

“I’ve been to China dozens of occasions,” Walz mentioned throughout a 2016 congressional listening to. “I have been there about 30 occasions,” Walz advised an agriculture-focused publication the identical 12 months.

Nevertheless, a Harris-Walz marketing campaign spokesperson just lately acknowledged to Minnesota Public Radio that the quantity was “nearer to fifteen occasions.” 

The revision comes amid rising scrutiny from GOP critics over Walz’s potential ties to the Individuals’s Republic of China and its ruling Communist Occasion. Earlier this month, Home Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., despatched a letter renewing strain on the FBI to supply paperwork associated to Chinese language Communist Occasion (CCP) entities or officers that Walz has purportedly engaged with prior to now.

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The Harris-Walz marketing campaign is setting the file straight relating to what number of occasions Gov. Tim Walz has visited China. (Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Pictures/LightRocket through Getty Pictures)

Based on Walz’s personal testimony, he first went to China in 1989 amid the Tiananmen Sq. rebellion. Walz was a part of the primary delegation of American academics to ever go to the communist nation in the course of the journey. He was a participant in Harvard’s WorldTeach program, which gave Walz the chance to reside and train younger college students in China for a 12 months. 

Walz apparently loved his time in China a lot that after transitioning his educating profession to the U.S., Walz continued to take annual journeys again to China together with his college students. Walz ultimately arrange an organization together with his spouse Gwen, referred to as Instructional Journey Adventures, Inc., which was devoted to taking college students on journeys to China and different worldwide locations. The 2 even honeymooned in China on considered one of their journeys in 1993. Walz’s annual journeys with college students befell between 1993 and the early 2000s, earlier than he started working for public workplace.  

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Walz and his spouse dissolved their student-travel firm after he gained his seat in Congress in 2006. Nevertheless, Walz’s China expertise was a matter of satisfaction for the now-vice presidential candidate when he was attempting to affix Congress. 

Walz’s marketing campaign web site on the time, as an illustration, highlighted his work as a visiting fellow at Macau Polytechnic College, a college in China with ties to the CCP. 

“What we’d like in schooling, what we’d like within the army, and what we’d like once I’m fostering cultural exchanges with China, is actual options,” Walz additionally mentioned when he debated incumbent GOP Rep. Gil Gutknecht in 2006, as soon as once more highlighting his work in China.  

Nevertheless, after Walz grew to become Harris’ working mate this 12 months, Minnesota Public Radio started attempting to confirm the “dozens” of journeys he claimed to have gone on. In the long run, they may solely confirm that about 12 of them had really occurred. 

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When the information outlet reached out to the Harris marketing campaign for documentation proving the remainder of Walz’s journeys did certainly happen, as an alternative of providing such proof they acknowledged that Walz had beforehand exaggerated the variety of journeys he took to China, and it was really “nearer to fifteen occasions” not “dozens of occasions.”   

The nationwide flags of the US and China flutter on the Fairmont Peace Resort on April 25, 2024 in Shanghai. (Picture by Wang Gang/VCG through Getty Pictures)

Moreover apparently misrepresenting what number of occasions he traveled to China, Walz has additionally been accused of misrepresenting his rank within the Military Nationwide Guard as nicely.

“I am a retired command sergeant main,” Walz asserted whereas working for Congress in 2006. Nevertheless, whereas Walz did serve briefly with that rank, he retired too early to maintain it. Walz’s retirement additionally prevented him from deploying to the Center East, one other level of criticism towards the vice presidential candidate who has instructed that he noticed fight. In the meantime, it has been alleged that Walz and his spouse have made false assertions about their use of IVF as nicely.  

A former nationwide guard veteran who reportedly served with Walz advised speak present host Megyn Kelly that they assume Walz is a “routine liar.”

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“He is a routine liar. He lies about all the pieces. He lies about stuff that does not make sense.” 

Fox Information Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz marketing campaign however didn’t hear again previous to publication time.