Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is facing more backlash after recent reports suggest he may have embellished a key story about his whereabouts during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, China.
The discrepancy, first highlighted by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and detailed by The Washington Free Beacon, casts doubt on Walz’s claims of being in Hong Kong during the pro-democracy protests and subsequent government crackdown, which drew global attention to China’s human rights violations.
In a 2014 congressional hearing commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Walz, then a U.S. congressman, recounted his experiences during that time. He claimed that he had been in Hong Kong in May of 1989, just before the Chinese government’s military crackdown on student protesters. Walz described witnessing the events unfold from Hong Kong and stated, “I still remember the train station in Hong Kong. There was a large number of, especially European, I think, very angry that we would still go after what had happened, but it was my belief at that time that the diplomacy was going to happen on many levels.”
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However, recent reports reveal a stark difference between Walz’s account and verifiable facts. MPR and local Nebraska news outlets have unearthed contemporaneous articles that show Walz was, in fact, in his home state of Nebraska during the Tiananmen Square events.
“The campaign was unable to produce documentation to back up Walz’s statement that he was there during the uprising,” MPR wrote when dissecting Walz’s experiences with China. A 1989 news report from the Chadron Record and another from the Alliance Times-Herald indicate that Walz did not leave the United States for China until August 1989, two months after the massacre took place. During May and June of that year, Walz was pictured and mentioned in local Nebraska newspapers while touring a National Guard storeroom in Alliance, Nebraska.
Walz has been accused of inflating his resume in the past, including claims about his military service. Walz has also positioned himself as a leader with international experience, particularly in matters related to China, a country he has visited several times throughout his career. However, MPR reported that his campaign has since admitted Walz traveled to China roughly 15 times, after Walz had previously exaggerated that number to 30.
In response to the growing controversy, Walz has not provided documentation to support his claim that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests. This is not the first time Walz’s comments about his time in China have come under scrutiny. The New York Times had previously reported on his alleged presence in Hong Kong during the protests, though it now appears that the newspaper may have relied on Walz’s own version of events without independent verification.
For his part, Walz has maintained that his experiences in China, particularly witnessing the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre, left a significant impact on him. According to his wife Gwen, the couple even chose to marry on the fifth anniversary of the massacre, with Walz stating he “wanted to have a date he’ll always remember.”
Ironically on Monday, a whistleblower revealed potential ties between Governor Walz and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The GOP-led House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY) issued a subpoena to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for documents related to the allegations. The whistleblower points to a Microsoft Teams chat among DHS employees discussing Governor Walz and his alleged CCP connections. If the allegations are proven true, this could have significant political consequences for Walz and the Democratic Party.
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