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Opinion | Why Harris-Walz is still the better pick for US-China engagement
Walz, though a critic of Beijing, has a genuine affection for China and its people. He’s likely to bring realpolitik to US foreign policy
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There has been a lot of chatter and misinformation online about Tim Walz and his connection to China since US Vice-President Kamala Harris named the Minnesota governor, former congressman, teacher and football coach as her running mate.
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Republicans, led by Donald Trump, a convicted felon who clocked up a reported 30,573 false or misleading statements during his presidency, have swallowed the orange Kool-Aid and are painting a weird and false portrait of Walz. Typical drivel includes the post on X by Trump acolyte and potential secretary of state Richard Grenell: “Communist China is very happy with @GovTimWalz as Kamala’s VP pick. No one is more pro-China than Marxist Walz.”
It reminds me of the hilarious ways in which Republicans successfully demonised legendary Florida congressman Claude Pepper in 1950, including by calling him “Red Pepper” for his liberal views, during the anti-communist “red scare”.
Let’s try to set the record straight for Walz.
It is true that young Walz was a high school teacher of American culture and history as well as English in southern China on a programme founded by Harvard students in the momentous 1989-1990 period, and was among the earliest cohort of American teachers in China.
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It is also true that he has made more than 30 trips to China and even honeymooned there, giving rise to unsubstantiated accusations that he must have been a spy, based on the weak argument that overworked and underpaid teachers could never have afforded such luxuries. Critics are also incensed that years ago, Walz had the temerity to suggest that the US and China did not need to have an “adversarial relationship”.
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