Tim Walz reviews the number of times he went to China

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said he was traveling to China far less than he had initially emphasized in congressional hearings and media interviews.

“I’ve been to China dozens of times,” Walz said at a congressional hearing in 2016. “I’ve been there about 30 times,” Walz told an agriculture-focused publication that same year.

However, a Harris-Walz campaign spokesman recently acknowledged to Minnesota Public Radio that the number was “closer to 15 times.”

The review comes amid mounting criticism from Republican critics over Walz’s possible ties to the People’s Republic of China and the ruling Communist Party. Earlier this month, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter renewing pressure on the FBI to produce documents related to Chinese Communist Party entities or officials ( CCP) with whom Walz is said to have had contact in the past. .

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The Harris-Walz campaign is setting the record straight on the number of times Governor Tim Walz has visited China. (Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

According to Walz’s own testimony, he first went to China in 1989, amid the Tiananmen Square uprising. Walz was part of the first delegation of American teachers to ever go to the communist country during the trip. He participated in Harvard’s WorldTeach program, which gave Walz the opportunity to live in China for a year and teach young students.

Walz apparently enjoyed his time in China so much that after transferring his teaching career to the US, Walz traveled back to China annually with his students. Walz eventually founded a company with his wife Gwen called Educational Travel Adventures, Inc., dedicated to taking students on trips to China and other international destinations. The two even honeymooned in China during one of their trips in 1993. Walz’s annual trips with students took place between 1993 and the early 2000s, before he ran for public office.

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Walz and his wife dissolved their student travel company after he won his seat in Congress in 2006. Walz’s Chinese experience, however, was a matter of pride for the now vice presidential candidate as he sought to join Congress.

For example, Walz’s campaign website at the time highlighted his work as a visiting scholar at Macau Polytechnic University, a university in China with ties to the CCP.

“What we need in education, what we need in the military, and what we need if I encourage cultural exchanges with China are real solutions,” Walz also said when he debated incumbent Republican Rep. Gil again in 2006 Gutknecht. attention to his work in China.

However, after Walz became Harris’ running mate this year, Minnesota Public Radio began trying to verify the “dozens” of trips he claimed to have made. In the end, they were only able to verify that about 12 of them had actually occurred.

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When the news outlet contacted the Harris Campaign for documentation proving that the rest of Walz’s trips did indeed take place, instead of providing such evidence, they acknowledged that Walz had previously exaggerated the number of trips he made to China, and that it was actually “closer”. up to 15 times’ and not ‘dozens of times’.

The national flags of the United States and China fly at the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai on April 25, 2024. (Wang Gang/VCG via Getty Images)

In addition to apparently misrepresenting the number of times he has traveled to China, Walz is also accused of misrepresenting his rank in the Army National Guard.

“I’m a retired sergeant major,” Walz claimed when he ran for Congress in 2006. Although Walz did hold that rank for a short time, he retired too early to retain it. Walz’s retirement also prevented him from going to the Middle East, another criticism of the vice presidential candidate, who suggested he saw a fight. Meanwhile, it is alleged that Walz and his wife have also made false claims about their use of IVF.

A former National Guard veteran who reportedly served with Walz told talk show host Megyn Kelly that they think Walz is a “habitual liar.”

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‘He’s a habitual liar. He lies about everything. He lies about things that don’t make sense.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign but did not hear back before publication.