Walz’s claim that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests is supported by unearthed newspaper reports

CNN
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Newly discovered reports contradict previous claims by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz about his trip to China, including the claim that the Democratic vice presidential candidate visited Hong Kong for a teaching position in 1989 during the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests that ended in hundreds were protesters killed by the Chinese government.

The discrepancy over Walz’s relationship with China comes ahead of Tuesday’s vice presidential election debate in New York, where Republican allies of Ohio Sen. JD Vance have signaled that the Republican vice presidential nominee could use Walz’s history in China to attack his rival. During his time as a teacher before entering politics, Walz regularly organized and accompanied trips to China.

Walz had previously said he visited Hong Kong in “May 1989,” weeks before the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. During a 2014 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China marking the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, Walz, then a congressman from Minnesota, appeared to recall certain details of his trip to the region at the time.

“As a young man, I was about to teach high school in Foshan, Guangdong, and I was in Hong Kong in May 1989,” he said. “And as events unfolded, several of us went inside. And I still remember the train station in Hong Kong.”

“The opportunity to attend a Chinese high school during this critical time seemed really important to me. And it was a very interesting summer to say the least. Because if you remember we’ve been thinking about the news blackouts and other events this summer and beyond, you certainly can’t block people’s news if they want to get it,” he continued.

Walz’s 2014 claim that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests was repeated in media reports. But contemporary newspaper reports, first resurfaced by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, show that Walz was in Nebraska at the time. A May 16, 1989, issue of the Alliance Times-Herald features a photograph of Walz touring a Nebraska National Guard storage facility. In the caption, the newspaper says Walz will “take over the task” of manning the storage room from a retired guardsman and “deploy to Alliance” in Nebraska. A separate newspaper article about Walz’s planned trip to China, published in April 1989 by a Nebraska-based newspaper, reported that he planned to travel to China in early August of that year.

When asked by CNN whether Walz was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests, the Harris campaign was unable to provide evidence to support Walz’s claim.

The contradiction was first reported by Minnesota Public Radio News and APM Reports.

Walz also appears to have exaggerated how often he traveled to China. In an interview in 2016, he said he had visited China “about 30 times.” At another meeting of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China in 2016, Walz claimed that he had visited Hong Kong “dozens and dozens and dozens of times.”

Asked for clarification on how often Walz traveled to China, a Harris campaign spokesman told CNN that the number of trips Walz made to China was “probably closer to 15.”

China has long held an important place in Walz’s life, ever since he first traveled to the country in 1989. Walz and his wife Gwen Walz were married on June 4, 1994 – the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre – and spent their honeymoon leading students on an educational trip to China, which Walz did during his time as a teacher before joining in Congress on a regular basis. Before their wedding, Gwen Walz told the Nebraska-based Star-Herald newspaper that they had planned to get married on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre because “he wanted to have a date that he would always remember.”

Since joining the Harris campaign, Walz has not spoken at length about China or his travel history to the country.

Republicans in recent days have focused on Walz’s ties to China as a target for further investigation. Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign, indicated Monday that he expected Vance to attack Walz over his trips to China.

“Tiananmen Tim! Funny they’re changing that now – we were planning on calling him out on it at the debate tomorrow night! “Anything else you want to admit, Tim???” Miller said in a social media post in response to the Harris campaign’s clarification about Walz’s trips to China.

Republicans in Congress have joined the Trump campaign in questioning Walz’s ties to China. House Oversight Chairman James Comer on Monday subpoenaed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for documents related to Walz, as part of allegations made through “whistleblower disclosures” to the committee that Walz had ties to the Communist Party Party of China. The subpoena is the latest move by House Republicans to highlight Walz’s ties to China through an investigation that began in August, shortly after he joined the Democratic Party.

The inconsistencies surrounding Walz’s trips to China and Hong Kong represent the latest instance in which the governor’s previous comments have been proven inaccurate since he became the Democratic vice presidential nominee. In August, a Harris campaign spokesman said Walz had “misspoken” in a 2018 video in which he said he handled assault weapons “in war.”

Later that month, Gwen Walz clarified that the couple had used a fertility treatment other than in vitro fertilization to get pregnant after her husband suggested they use artificial insemination.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to accurately reflect Tim Walz’s previous claims that he traveled to Asia in 1989. He claimed he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests.