TAIPEI, Taiwan – From teaching at a high school in China to his experience as a member of an important congressional committee on Beijing-Washington relations, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has had decades-long ties to China since the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
Mr. Walz was a teacher of American history and culture and English at Foshan High School in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in 1989, the year hundreds of thousands of Chinese students protested against the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Tiananmen Square.
“China was opening up and that's why I went”Mr. Walz declared in an interview for the portal 'The Hill' in Washington, in 2007. During his one year teaching in China, the students gave him the nickname “China Fields” because of his kindness.
The time he spent in China influenced his impressions of Chinese life under the Communist Party.
“If they had a genuine leadership, their achievements would have no limit”, he stated in an interview with the Star Herald newspaper in 1990, describing the experience of teaching in China as “one of the most valuable things” for her.
His interest in China did not stop there. After returning to the United States, Mr. Walz and his wife founded a company called Adventure Travel Education to organize summer excursions for American students to China.
Five years after the Tiananmen Square protests and their violent suppression by the Chinese government, Mr. Walz returned to China with his wife for their honeymoon and took two groups of American students with them. He and his wife continued to organize summer programs for American students in China until 2003.
Human rights activist in China
After being elected to the House of Representatives in 2007, Mr. Walz continued to focus on issues related to China. As a lawmaker in Congress, he was part of the Congressional Executive Committee on China, whose sole purpose is to deal with human rights in China.
Within a short period, Mr. Walz became a vocal critic of the Chinese government. He regularly met high-profile activists from China and Hong Kong, including activist Joshua Wong and Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
In a 2014 VOA interview, Mr. Walz recalled his impressions of witnessing student protests in Tiananmen Square. “I remember waking up on the 4th of July with the news that the unimaginable had happened,” he declared.
Although most Americans at the time decided to leave China for security reasons after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, Mr. Walz said he believed it “was an important time to go” to China because he wanted to make sure that “what was happening had to be told”, as well as to convey the message to the Chinese that the outside world is with them.
In addition to engaging with activists from China and Hong Kong, Mr. Walz also proposed with other lawmakers several resolutions on important human rights issues in China, including resolutions calling for the release of Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo and activist Huang Qi. He also signed as a guarantor the Declaration on Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong in 2017.
In one of his statements as a lawmaker in 2016, Mr. Walz emphasized the importance of “constructive dialogue” with Beijing to ensure “protecting Tibet's traditional culture and its fragile ecology.”
“The United States was founded on the idea of universal liberties, and I believe we should continue to urge the Chinese government not to restrict the religious freedom of Tibetans.” he declared.
Foreign policy
As well as being a vocal critic of human rights in China, Mr Walz has also expressed concern about China's efforts to expand its presence in the South China Sea in 2016, citing Beijing's plans to build artificial islands. in disputed waters, and has opposed Washington's efforts to reduce the military budget.
Despite his steadfast stance on human rights in China and the military presence, Mr. Walz has emphasized the importance of continued cooperation with China. “I am not in the category of people who think that we must have hostile relations with China,” he declared in an interview for the 'Agri Pulse' portal.
“I think we should stand firm about what Beijing is doing in the South China Sea, but there are many other areas of cooperation where we can work,” added Mr. Walz.
Some analysts say Mr. Walz's deep ties to China and his background in diplomacy between China and the United States could help the Democratic duo make informed foreign policy decisions, especially on issues related to China.
“I think a lot of people who are concerned about American foreign policy in this part of the world are relieved to have him selected as the Democratic nominee for vice president, because in that combination is someone who is informed, who has lived in region and that does not start over in terms of American foreign policy in East Asia,” said political science professor Lev Nachman from National Taiwan University.
He said that through the human impressions Mr. Walz has shared with the public about the Chinese, Tibetans and Hong Kong residents, the Minnesota governor can add more nuance to the China debate in the United States.
“He can articulate the need to criticize China's authoritarianism and human rights violations in various parts of the world in a way that does not disparage the Chinese, as well as not supporting the rhetoric of fear that currently prevails in the United States when talks about the relations between the two countries,” Mr. Nachman told VOA.
