APM Reports



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Tim Walz's experience in China could help him as veep, but he barely mentions it as a candidate

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The warning from the U.S. State Department in June 1989 was stark. It told Americans to stay away from China, citing an "extremely volatile and potentially life-threatening" situation there following the Tiananmen Square massacre. Two months later, even though the department was still discouraging "non-essential" travel to the country, a 25-year-old teacher from Nebraska went there anyway.

"I'm somewhat apprehensive, but I'm also excited," Tim Walz told a local newspaper before departing for a yearlong teaching appointment in the southern Chinese city of Foshan. "It will be an interesting experience, I'm sure."

That experience sparked in Walz a lifelong fascination with Chinese culture — one he shared with hundreds of high school students on elaborately planned annual trips over the course of a decade and touted proudly when he first entered politics. Walz was so proud of his extensive experience abroad that he occasionally used to exaggerate it. His campaign now acknowledges that Walz's past claims that he had been to China around 30 times were overstated, and the actual number of trips he's taken from the United States to China is "closer to 15."

But, now as Minnesota's governor and the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president, Walz has chosen to emphasize his folksy image as a down-home Midwestern dad and state-championship football coach rather than his history as a peripatetic world traveler. His biography on the Harris-Walz campaign's official website makes no mention of his extensive international experience.

As vice president, he would have a far bigger foreign policy role than he does now. Since Walz joined the national ticket, APM Reports has interviewed more than a dozen people and combed through business records, government documents, yearbooks and old news clippings in search of a better picture of his experience in China. The reporting — which includes exclusive video obtained by APM Reports of his time in China — paints a picture of a distinctive and often-overlooked part of Walz's life.



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