Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, reportedly employed positive terminology to characterize Chinese communism during a high school social studies class in 1991, as revealed by a recently discovered article in Nebraska’s Alliance Times-Herald. According to this resurfaced piece, Walz informed his students that communism ensures that “everyone shares” and receives free food and housing provided by the government.
This statement comes in stark contrast to the events that transpired just two years prior, when the Chinese communist regime violently suppressed pro-democracy student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, resulting in death toll estimates ranging from several hundred to thousands, as reported by the BBC.
“American students need to learn the horrific truths of communism and the horrors this dangerous ideology has wrought over the past century,” American Foreign Policy Council senior fellow Michael Sobolik told the Free Beacon. “Gov. Walz should clarify his comments and share his impression of communism in 2024.”
Sobolik said Walz exposed students to a “shockingly naïve description of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule.”
From 1959 to 1961, amid China’s shift to communism under Mao Zedong, the nation experienced an estimated 23 to 30 million excess deaths, with certain unpublished Chinese documents suggesting the number could be as high as 40 million, as noted in a research paper from 1999. Additionally, Communist China was responsible for the deaths of American soldiers during the Korean War and offered significant assistance to North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. These critical facts were absent from Walz’s statements regarding China.
“It means that everyone is the same and everyone shares,” Walz told his students in the unearthed article. Walz provided an account of life under communism, highlighting the benefits experienced by individuals in China during the late 1970s, such as free housing, exemption from taxes, and a monthly allocation of 30 pounds of complimentary food. His initial visit to China occurred in 1989 as part of a teaching fellowship, shortly after the tragic events at Tiananmen Square, as reported by various sources.
The governor of Minnesota wed his spouse on June 4, 1994, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the massacre, according to the BBC. His wife later remarked that he desired a date that would remain etched in his memory.
On August 16, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability initiated an investigation into Walz’s purported connections to China and the Chinese Communist Party, as stated in a press release. The committee alleged that Walz’s expenses were funded by the Chinese government during a visit to the country in 1993 and expressed concerns regarding his association with Macau Polytechnic University, an institution that professes a longstanding commitment to its homeland.
Shortly before becoming the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Walz said that “one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.”
