Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, boasted about Minnesota hosting several top Chinese leaders in a letter.
The Minnesota International Chinese School showcased a 2021 letter from Walz on its YouTube channel celebrating the 10th anniversary of the school’s Chinese New Year.
“Minnesota has a longstanding relationship with the people of China,” Walz said in the letter. “The state has promoted Minnesota’s connections with China and has hosted numerous senior Chinese leaders for decades. Thousands of Minnesotans claim ancestral connections to China, which has helped foster numerous ties between Minnesota and China.”
“These ties are rapidly expanding through the growth of education, trade, and investment opportunities between our two peoples,” he added before congratulating the school on a “very important milestone” and “teaching our language learners and future leaders the importance of speaking multiple languages and of being global citizens.”
The letter came within 10 days of Zhao Jian, the Consul General of China in Chicago, recording a four-minute greeting in Chinese for the school, according to the school’s YouTube channel. Walz’s connection to Jian has been under scrutiny in recent weeks after the House Oversight Committee unearthed a meeting between Walz and Jian earlier this year discussing “China-U.S. relations and sub-national cooperation.”
While the specifics of the meeting aren’t clear, a 2022 report from the Biden administration’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI) highlighted how U.S.-based Chinese consulates like the one Walz met with “play an active role” in “foreign influence operations” on behalf of the CCP.
Walz’s decades-long ties to China have come back to haunt him since Vice President Harris picked him to join her Democratic ticket as the vice presidential nominee. He worked briefly in China as a teacher, traveling to Guangdong in 1989 for a teaching-abroad program to teach English and American history.
Walz was initially believed to have made dozens of trips to China over his lifetime, but a campaign spokesperson would later try to walk that number back and say he made approximately 15 visits to China, which included his honeymoon in 1994.
He also came to the defense of the Chinese Communist system, saying during a 1991 school lesson that it “means that everyone is the same, and everyone shares.”
Walz was also quoted by a local outlet in 1990 reflecting on his visits to China, saying, “No matter how long I live, I will never be treated that well again. . . . They gave me more gifts than I could bring home. It was an excellent experience,” Walz said, adding that he had been “treated exceptionally well.”
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