This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now licensed for reprint.
This time, June 4 marked a significant day for the governor of Minnesota. Tim Walz.
Not only did it mark , 35 times since the 1989 massacre , of scholar protesters in Tiananmen Square in China, where he taught English and American story as a younger college student the same year.
It was also his 30th marriage celebration.
The 60-year-old was chosen as Kamala Harris ‘ going partner for the November election along with former president Donald Trump on Tuesday, but that was no accident.
” He wanted to have a meeting he’ll often remember”, Walz’s family, Gwen, told the , Scottsbluff Sun-Herald , before their 1994 marriage.  ,
The Walzs likewise took their two-week “honeymoon” to China– with some 60 American high-school pupils in tow – for” sightseeing and courses on society, education and history”, the paper reported.
He and his family established a private company that made annual summer visits to China for American high school students, more bolstering their relations to the east after settling in Minnesota.
It was piece of Walz’s forethought about China’s growing value.
” China was coming, and that’s the purpose that I went”, Walz said of his relations to the state in , an exam with , The Hill , in 2007 after his election to the U. S. Congress in Minnesota in the 2006 exams.  ,
Legislative monitoring
Walz was referred to as” an accidental politician” by The Hill  in 2007 after a follower of John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign was “hustled out” of a march for the president.
However, when in company, Walz became a steadfast and vocal critic of China’s government, calling his time teaching at a college in Guangdong” an excellent knowledge” that caused him to believe” I’ll not be treated that well again.”
In spite of accusations of China’s human rights record, he joined the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, an monitoring system established by President Bill Clinton in 2000.
There he spoke out for the need for the U. S. services to maintain “dialogue” with the Foreign government , to end its human rights abuses against the Tibetan persons, whose society he said never be” confined” by Beijing to” a gallery or to a business of handicrafts”.
” Renewing speech may be true and effective, and it cannot be just another pretext for wasting time or going through the motions”, Walz said in 2016 following a trip to Tibet, Beijing and Hong Kong.  ,
” The human rights of the Tibetan people must be strengthened and protected”, he said, citing” a life-changing lunch” with the Dalai Lama.
The same year, he even spoke out against cuts in funding for the U. S. defense by citing, among other things, “tensions rising with our trading partner, China, and the seeds of possible turmoil in the Pacific”, including Beijing creating islands in the South China Sea.
Dueling VPs
Walz is n’t the only candidate for vice president in the 2024 campaign with a significant China focus.  ,
Trump’s selected No. 2 for his next strategy for the White House, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has since coming to office in 2022 become one of the most popular advocates of the view that U. S. aid for Ukraine , should remain reduced , to make for a possible war with China.
Although the 40-year-old Vance was only five when Walz first visited China, their opinions on how to deal with America’s biggest geopolitical rival are undoubtedly mocked out in debate. Vance on Tuesday said he “absolutely wants” to debate his opposite number.
The personal and professional ties Walz has made to China since graduating from college, likely to be at the forefront, given the authoritarian government that controls their lives.
” If they had the proper leadership, there are no limits on what they could accomplish”, he told the , Scottsbluff Sun-Herald , in 1990. ” They are such kind, generous, capable people. They simply gave to me and continue to give. One of the best things I’ve ever done was to go there.
