by Liz Collin
A man who says he joined Tim Walz on a trip to communist China is speaking out about his experience of traveling to the country with the future vice-presidential candidate.
“It was almost a daily revelation of how much he adores the communist regime,” the former student told Alpha News.
For over a decade, Tim Walz traveled to and from China. First arriving in the country in 1989, Walz taught at a high school in partnership with a nonprofit program affiliated with Harvard University. During this first trip, Walz was visiting Hong Kong when the Tiananmen Square protests began in April. Those protests ended in June when the communist government massacred protestors on June 3-4, 1989.
After the massacre, Walz later took a train to Beijing to visit the square, according to the New York Times.
Upon returning to the United States after that first trip, Walz told local newspapers how much he enjoyed his time in China. On June 4, 1994, Walz married Gwen Whipple on the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Gwen told a local newspaper that Walz “wanted to have a date he’ll always remember,” the Wall Street Journal reported. The couple spent their honeymoon in China, according to local reports from the time.
After this first trip to China, Walz founded a company that took students on summer trips to China. Walz said in a 2016 interview that he has traveled to China “about 30 times” as a teacher and member of Congress. The New York Post recently reported that Walz was a visiting fellow at a state-run university in China as recently as 2007.
Now, a former student who says he joined Walz on a 1995 trip to China is speaking to Alpha News about the experience. That student, Shad, asked that we not use his last name.
For several weeks, Walz and his group of students explored China together in the summer of 1995, Shad said. They saw Tiananmen Square, walked along the Great Wall of China, and traversed the country. However, the former student says he was struck by Walz’s adoration for China and its communist ideology.
“There was no doubt he was a true believer,” Shad said. “I’ve been trying to tell people this for 30 years. Nobody wanted to listen.
“At night, we’d go out, we’d walk the street fairs. We’d be buying souvenirs and Tim was always buying the little red book. He said he gave them as gifts … I saw him buy at least a dozen on the trip,” he said.
“It would be like in Germany and buying copies of Mein Kampf,” the then student told Alpha news.
“If there was any doubt about what I’m saying just look at the policies enacted by his administration like the country’s worst abortion law, anti-free speech, the riots,” Shad pointed out. “He’s a Maoist to the core and should not be underestimated.”
Shad drew attention to the similarities between the messaging of Walz and Kamala Harris—including phrases like “the politics of joy” and “unburdened by what has been”—and the propaganda materials used by Mao.
“People need to have their eyes wide open,” Shad said. “The snitch hotline in Minnesota is straight out of CCP. Tim Walz is a very bright guy. None of this by accident.”
Now a two-term governor of Minnesota and Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Walz’s connections to China are receiving new scrutiny. Multiple public figures have begun to express their concerns, and many of those concerns are connected to Walz’s service in the National Guard.
For 24 years, Walz served in the National Guard; first with the Nebraska National Guard, then with the Minnesota National Guard. The future governor joined the National Guard in 1981 and retired in 2005. As such, many of Walz’s trips to China occurred while he was an active member of the National Guard.
Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana recently wrote to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to inquire if Walz had a security clearance during his visits to the communist regime. Saying Walz possessed a “concerning affinity for China,” Rep. Banks told the DOD that “Any individual traveling dozens of times to an adversary nation in a personal capacity while having access to classified information poses an obvious security risk.”
On Friday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said he was launching an investigation into Walz’s “longstanding connections to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities and officials.” Shad said he submitted a report with Comer’s office on Saturday.
John R. Schindler, a former senior intelligence analyst and counterintelligence officer with the National Security Agency (NSA), wrote of Walz’s ties to China, saying, “It’s certain that Walz was vetted by the Ministry of State Security, the regime’s powerful secret police, because that’s how China works. No American would be allowed to run academic exchanges for a couple of decades, on the CCP’s dime, without MSS approval. It just wouldn’t happen.
“Three decades ago, a young American with an affection for China, who was also a part-time member of the U.S. military, would have been a tempting recruiting target for Chinese intelligence,” added Schindler.
More generally, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said Walz “owes the American people an explanation about his unusual, 35-year relationship with Communist China.”
Walz’s staff did not respond to a request for comment. In response to Comer’s investigation, a spokesperson told the media: “Throughout his career, Governor Walz has stood up to the CCP, fought for human rights rights and democracy, and always put American jobs and manufacturing first. Republicans are twisting basic facts and desperately lying to distract from the Trump-Vance agenda: praising dictators, and sending American jobs to China. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will ensure we win the competition with China, and will always stand up for our values and interests in the face of China’s threats.”
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Liz Collin has been a truth-teller for 20 years as a multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter and anchor. Liz is a Worthington, Minnesota native who lives in the suburbs with her husband, son and loyal lab.
Photo “Tim Walz” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
