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【Text/Observer Network Yang Rong】

He has been to China 30 times, said he received "unprecedented" treatment in China, and "opposes Sino-US hostility"... On August 6 local time, after being selected as the running mate by US Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Harris, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's past history of remarks on China and his experiences with China were quickly dug up by US politicians and media.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post noted on the 7th that within the first few hours after the official announcement of the above decision, supporters of Republican presidential candidate Trump, from anonymous social media accounts, former government officials, to hard-line right-wing media, rushed to criticize Waltz's "extensive personal experience" in China, and even suggested that he was a "Chinese agent." Waltz's history of teaching in China and running study abroad programs has also become a "strong evidence" for his "pro-China accusations" by American hawks, as well as a weapon for partisan attacks.

According to reports, Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence of the United States during the Trump era, posted on the social media X (formerly Twitter) on the 6th that China was "very satisfied" with Waltz's selection as the Democratic vice presidential candidate and that "no one is more pro-China than the Marxist Waltz."

Gabriel Noronha, a former special adviser to the Iran Action Group appointed by the Trump administration, shared a purported 2019 speech by Waltz on X, in which he called for "continued constructive economic relations with China" and expanded military engagement with China to build a "robust and lasting partnership" with China. Under another post by Noronha about Waltz's position on Iran, Cuba and Palestine, a comment called Waltz a "socialist candidate."

The report also mentioned a Trump supporter account named Leskov Brandonovic, which forwarded a post by Waltz in 2019 on X, which believed that the Trump administration's tariffs on Chinese imports harmed the interests of American farmers and advocated that the United States "end the trade war with China." In response, the account wrote: "Tim Waltz...went to China to 'teach' and did business in China, but opposed the trade war with China. How can I not be surprised?"

The South China Morning Post pointed out that although Leskov Brandonovic's account has only 5,612 followers, they include Trump's son Donald Jr. and Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary of the Trump campaign. The account has the hashtag "MAGA" (Make America Great Again) in its profile and claims to fight against "libtards."

On the 6th, the Republican tabloid "New York Post", which has long supported Trump, published a sensational report titled "Tim Waltz Fawns on Communist China", hyping up Waltz's past experience in China. In this report, which quickly sparked heated discussions on social media, the "New York Post" said that Waltz had taught in Foshan, Guangdong, China for a year, and he did not hide his praise for this trip in subsequent interviews with American media.

Waltz emphasized that he enjoyed "extraordinary good treatment." "No matter how long I live, I will never be treated so well again." The report quoted him as saying to the Nebraska Star-Herald at the time, "They gave me so many gifts that I couldn't take them all home. It was a great experience." In his view, the Chinese "have no anti-American sentiments," and many Chinese students who lack opportunities in their own country want to come to the United States to study.

The New York Post also sourly described Walz as giving a "glowing evaluation" of the Chinese city where he lives, citing his comment during an interview that there was "almost no crime" there and that "he never felt threatened." "Walz is so fascinated by China that he and his wife, Gwen Walz, even honeymooned in China," the New York Post wrote.

Waltz

Waltz, 60, is a native of Nebraska, USA. After graduating from high school in 1982, he served in the US National Guard.

Public information shows that after obtaining a degree in social science education from Chadron State College, Waltz taught English and American history at Foshan No. 1 Middle School for one year through Harvard University's WorldTeach program. He was one of the first Americans admitted to the program, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune said he can still communicate in Mandarin.

Why did he decide to go to China? According to a 2007 report in the US Capitol Hill, Waltz explained: "China is about to rise, and that's why I went to China." He also recalled that at that time, China had just started its reform and opening up, and Western faces were still rare in China, so his Chinese students nicknamed him "China Field", "because your kindness is as vast as the fields of China." Students also called him "Big Nose" and "Foreign Devil", but Waltz said he believed that the students had no ill intentions.

According to the New York Post, during his teaching career, Waltz "traveled all over China", including Beijing, Macau, Tibet and other places. After returning to the United States in 1990, Waltz told the Star-Herald that if the Chinese people had "proper leadership", "there is no limit to what they can achieve". "They are so kind, generous and capable, they have given me so much, and going there is one of the best things I have ever done."

After returning to the United States, Waltz met his wife Gwen while teaching at a high school in Nebraska. After getting married in 1994, the two founded a company called Educational Travel Adventures to organize summer trips to China for American high school students and help them adapt to Chinese culture. According to the Newsweek website, Gwen's biography said that the couple organized these trips almost every year until 2003.

In 1996, the Waltzes moved to Minnesota. In 2005, Waltz retired from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives the following year. He was re-elected for five terms and served as a member of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). In 2018, Waltz was elected governor of Minnesota and was re-elected in 2022.

During this period, Waltz and his wife still traveled to China from time to time. According to Waltz himself in an interview with the American Agri-Pulse news network in 2016, he "has been to China about 30 times." He advocated at the time that the United States should not regard China as an "adversary."

"I've lived in China and been there about 30 times. But if someone tells you they're an expert on China, they're probably not telling you the truth because it's a complicated country," Waltz said. "I don't think China has to be an adversary (to the United States), I totally disagree with that view. I think we need to stand firm... but we can cooperate in many areas."

In the eyes of the New York Post and other media, this means that Waltz continues to speak positively about China. Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), a conservative think tank in the United States, also criticized Waltz for being "almost too optimistic" about the "struggle" against China, just like Harris and President Biden. But in fact, Waltz often cites his past trips to China and makes comments on China's human rights issues at congressional hearings.

Some analysts pointed out that the CECC, where Waltz served, was different from other congressional organizations oriented toward China-related issues in that it focused on human rights issues. At a congressional hearing in 2016, Waltz claimed that he had thought that under a free market economy, China would be more open to its so-called control over social life and human rights, "but this has not happened at all."

From this perspective, Bloomberg estimates that Waltz's stance on China may lead to criticism from China. However, the report also quoted an unnamed Chinese official as saying that China believes that the Democratic Party's choice of Waltz is unlikely to affect US policy because US politicians generally hold a tough attitude towards China. In China's view, every US presidential candidate mistakenly believes in false narratives about China.

Is the “China experience” a double-edged sword?

The domestic controversy over Waltz’s so-called “pro-China dark history” also, to some extent, reflects the chaos in U.S. bipartisan politics.

"In this election, any connection to China is being used as a weapon against opponents." The South China Morning Post pointed out that just last week, Trump supporters launched a similar attack on another potential running mate of Harris, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, on social media.

Last week, Kelly, a former NASA astronaut, once gained a leading support rate within the party with his previously accumulated popularity and advantages on border policy and immigration issues. But at this juncture, Kelly's old video of speaking in China in 2015 for an American health product MLM company was dug up and was besieged by Trump supporters.

The video shows that, accompanied by the classic theme song of the movie "Top Gun", Kelly rode a motorcycle on a stage in China, with the American and Chinese flags hanging on the handlebars. As the commander of the US space shuttle Endeavour, he passionately promoted to Chinese franchisees that during his service in space, he carried vitamins and space drinks developed by the health care company, and called on the Chinese audience to join this health cause.

Isaac Stone Fish, CEO of Strategy Risks, a research firm that analyzes corporate relations with China, called such ties to China a "double-edged sword" in American politics. "On the one hand, voters and officials connect with someone who has expertise on such an extremely important issue as China. On the other hand, those who have ties to Beijing - especially those who have ties to Beijing now - may expose themselves to attacks from the opposition party."

Denis Simon, former executive vice president of Duke Kunshan University, believes that Waltz's experience in China should be seen as an "asset". In Simon's view, Waltz's visit to China is not because he is "pro-China", "he has accumulated the field experience he needs as a diplomat, negotiator and partner... He went to China as part of people-to-people diplomacy, which helps build trust and understanding." He said that Waltz's experience can help the US government "understand the thinking, behavior and intentions of the Chinese."

Fish mentioned that, in fact, just as the two major parties in the United States have reached a consensus to reduce engagement with China today, in the 1990s, 2000s and most of the 2010s, the two parties also reached a consensus to increase US engagement with China.

Even in the current tense situation of US-China relations, US Ambassador to China Burns recently expressed his hope to seek more cultural exchanges with China. "We need young Americans to experience China." Burns said at an event of the Brookings Institution in the United States last December, "If the future US leadership is isolated from China, has no experience in China, and cannot speak Mandarin, it is not in the national interest."

In response, Jeffrey Sachs, an American economist and author of "A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism," said that "Americans are troubled by the nonsense about China that is being propagated by foreign policy," and that Waltz's "personal experience should help him see through this nonsense."

"There is absolutely no deep reason for conflict between the United States and China, especially when cooperation between the two countries can help solve so many global problems," Sachs said. "Both Trump and Biden are dead wrong about China, and I hope Harris and Waltz can do better."

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