Tim Walz and China: History, Policies, Backlash | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus, I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, teaching in China back in the 90s, running a business tied to China, and visiting China more than 30 times, far more than most US politicians. We take a closer look at Vice President candidate Tim Walz's stances on China, and how both Republicans and Chinese citizens are responding to his foreign policy ideas. As far as I can tell, he is pretty tough on China without one exception. The Chinese regime claims to be cracking down on illicit fentanyl, but members of Congress are skeptical. This after it was discovered that China was subsidizing exports of the opioid into the US. A bipartisan push against China's actions in Africa, led by two Congress members. They've introduced a bill targeting Beijing's foreign investment program. In a disaster in China's southern Guangdong province, a two-story residential building collapsed following an explosion. Tuesday night, a banner reading Harris-Walz was hung for the first time in Pennsylvania, as the Democratic duo held their first election rally. The event came just after Kamala Harris announced her choice of running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. Walz's name quickly became one of the most searched on search engines in the US, and also across China. All of his connections with China are now under close scrutiny. Who is Tim Walz, and where does he stand on China? We take a closer look. Tim Walz has held Minnesota's governor's office since 2019. He was re-elected in 2022 after his first term. As for policy, he signed a bill last May expanding access to harm reduction services, including drug checking services. These services can detect additives like fentanyl and xylosine, highly dangerous substances often laced into other drugs. A large amount of the chemicals used to make illicit fentanyl find their way into the US from China. In addition to fentanyl, Governor Walz has condemned China for quote, siding with Russia in the war with Ukraine. When the war broke out, he banned all investments and contracts from Minnesota to Russia and Belarus. Over the past few years, an increasing number of bipartisan lawmakers have started to view China as an adversary. Though in an interview with Missouri-based news service AgriPulse from 2016, Walz said he viewed China differently. Focus of that came into being after we normalized trade relations with China, where we got rid of most favored nation status and normalized trade relations to try and keep a focus that we'll trade with China, but they have to play by the rules, both from an environmental, from a fair trade, and also from a human rights perspective. And one of the things we've been focusing on, and I lived in China, and as I said, I've been there about 30 times. But if someone tells you they're an expert on China, they're probably not telling you the truth because it's a complex country. But it's critically important for us. I don't fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship. I totally disagree. And I think we need to stand firm on what they're doing in the South China Sea. But there's many areas of cooperation that we can work on. Walz was serving as a congressman for Minnesota at the time. Fast forward to today, Walz's statements about the Chinese Communist Party, have sparked criticism among Republicans. Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance condemned Walz's policy on Tuesday, saying Walz proposed sending more manufacturing jobs to China. James Hutton, a former U.S. official, posted on X, suggesting that Walz doesn't see communist tyranny as a bad thing, and calling him dangerous because of it. Walz has said one person's socialism is another person's neighborliness, and is now taking heat for his remarks. Former President Donald Trump told Fox News Wednesday morning that Walz is a, quote, shocking pick. Trump said he could not be more thrilled about the decision, and called Walz a smarter version of Harris, and about the same as Bernie Sanders. On the other hand, Governor Walz has worked on raising awareness on China's human rights issues for decades. People's desire to have basic religious freedoms, basic freedom of the press and freedom of the speech, I mean, that is what made Hong Kong so dynamic. And I would encourage them to continue to find ways to compromise. The people are not doing this because they want to embarrass them. They're not doing it because they're anarchists. They're doing it because it's a basic human desire to live free. Walz served in the Congressional Executive Commission on China from 2007 to 2014. The body exclusively focuses on China's human rights issues. He co-signed several resolutions to urge China to stop human rights violations. In 1989, Walz taught high school students in China for a year. To remember the June 4th pro-democracy protest, he and his wife chose to get married on the same day a few years later, and honeymooned in China. He also had a travel business which brought American students to visit China through 2003. Many Chinese internet users say Tim Walz's China connection appeared to be friendlier, with some saying they hope he might help stabilize U.S.-China relations if he wins. At the same time, others expressed concerns that Walz might target China more harshly than others based on his broad knowledge of the country. Walz has a unique and extensive history with China, marked by both criticism and close engagement. To discuss how that relationship could influence a Harris-Walz China policy, we sat down with Anders Kor, publisher of the journal A Political Risk and Principle at Kor Analytics. Anders Kor, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Thank you. Walz has been outspoken about China's human rights record. Now, he's also said he doesn't see the Chinese Communist Party as an adversary, calling for dialogue, not confrontation. How do you see all of that playing into the Harris-Walz China policy? Other than that, I do think, especially more recently, I think he's taken positions that have basically proven that he's tough on China. You mentioned the organ harvesting thing, which I think is a real litmus test. Anything having to do with the Falun Gong is, I would say, a litmus test in terms of being tough on China. That's the last thing Beijing wants is any support for Falun Gong. Now, I've heard Trump talk about massive tariffs on China. We've seen President Biden keep a lot of those. He even expanded the ones on Chinese EVs to 100 percent tariffs. When it comes to Governor Walz, what can we expect on the economic front? I don't think we'd see as many tariffs on China with a democratic administration as with the Trump administration. Trump is really the king of tariffs. If you think about it, he broke the mold on it. He brought in the first big tariffs. His tariffs were much bigger on $300 billion worth of trade with China, approximately, compared to Biden's new tariffs of about only $18 billion. So I think that probably that would continue. The low tariffs of the democratic administration have been, I think, largely an attempt to keep inflation down, which is one of their biggest goals. In 1990, Walz also said about the Chinese people writ large, quote, Now, many people and reports are saying that Chinese regime leader right now, Xi Jinping, is a dictator. How would the U.S. help the Chinese people get what Walz is describing proper leadership? I definitely think that's an underhand hit comment against the Chinese Communist Party. It implies that the Chinese people do not have good leadership right now. One nice thing about Walz, I think, is that he is very focused on the people of China, which is, of course, what we need to do. We need to disaggregate the people from the Chinese Communist Party. And I think I would be hopeful that he would be promoting democracy and the democratization of China, which I think is a very, very important goal. I definitely think you would see a tougher position with a Harris-Walz foreign policy on China than you have currently with the Biden administration. Anders Kor, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. The Chinese regime claims it's stepping up enforcement to counter illicit fentanyl. NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley has warned why members of Congress are skeptical that the Chinese Communist Party is keeping its word. The Chinese Communist Party says that it will subject three fentanyl precursor chemicals to additional regulation and oversight, and the White House said that this is a step forward. However, at the same time, the Chinese regime is directly subsidizing the manufacturing and export of these precursor chemicals. A spokesperson for the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party told NTD this in a statement, saying, quote, this is just the PRC's latest vacuous promise. The PRC says that it is cooperating by scheduling precursors, as it did with fentanyl, while it actively subsidizes those purportedly illegal substances and takes no enforcement action against the PRC perpetrators responsible for hundreds of thousands of American deaths. The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party found in an April report that the CCP directly subsidizes the manufacturing and export of illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics through tax rebates. Many of these substances are illegal under the CCP's own laws and have no known legal use worldwide. The report found that over 97 percent of the world's fentanyl precursors come from China. Those chemicals are sold to and trafficked by Mexican drug cartels into America, mostly through the ports of entry in California. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death among young Americans, killing tens of thousands in the U.S. every single year. And in many cases, people taking the drug don't even realize that they're taking fentanyl because it's made to look like illicit prescription painkillers. Members of Congress have considered export controls and other forceful methods to stop the Chinese regime from exporting fentanyl to other countries, but it still remains the number one exporter of fentanyl precursor chemicals. Reporting from the White House, Jack Bradley, NTD News. Pushed back against China's foothold in Africa, Congress members Yang Kim and Colin Alvred are leading a bipartisan move. They've introduced a bill called the Stopping PRC Environmental Exploitation and Degradation Act. The bill targets the Chinese regime's foreign investment program, the Belt and Road Initiative. That program finances infrastructure through giving large loans to mostly developing countries. Sometimes, when these countries cannot pay back their Chinese debt, Beijing seizes the infrastructure, including strategic ports, as compensation. The approach has earned the name debt-trap diplomacy from Western critics. The lawmakers also say Chinese companies have been exploiting Africa's natural resources, negatively affecting the environment, ecology and public health. If the bill passes, it will sanction these Chinese companies for their actions in Africa. Turning our attention now to the Middle East, Qatar has agreed to get on board with a U.S.-backed initiative aimed at countering China's dominance of critical minerals and clean energy. The nation is spending $180 million in Tecmec, a mining investment company based in Ireland. First established in 2017, Tecmec has dedicated a staggering $450 million to tent operations, including several prominent lithium and rare earth miners. And securing the supply chain of these resources has been a priority for the Biden administration. Washington is seeking to convince three oil-rich Arab states to invest in U.S.-backed plants, namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, China accounted for roughly 70 percent of the world's rare earth production in 2023. The Chinese regime has good relationships with Qatar, and is one of the country's largest buyers for liquefied natural gas. That's as the U.S. sees Qatar as a major non-NATO ally. A two-story residential building collapsed following an explosion in China's southern Guangdong province earlier Wednesday. At least three people have been found dead. Surveillance video shows the explosion was followed by the crumbling of the building in a thick cloud of dust. Eyewitness videos also showed residents standing atop the rubble, clearing debris as they continued the search. As of now, the official report states that in addition to the three people who died, at least four are trapped beneath the rubble, and one person sustained minor injuries. Based on the preliminary investigation by authorities, the cause of the explosion was a gas leak. That's all for today's China InFocus on YouTube. We're now sharing a shortened version of our program here after being demonetized for three years. If you'd like to support us, consider donating. Find us at donorbox.org slash china-in-focus. Or subscribe to our partner platform, EpicTV, where you can watch our full episodes. Just click the link down below. Here's what to look out for in our second half. Satellite images revealing Western fighter jets at a Chinese airbase. That intel sparking concerns over tech security. What has the Chinese military been practicing during its military drills? Hundreds of thousands of kids are part of China's school sports system. But what happens to them as they grow? An analysis on how the CCP uses its young people to further an agenda. They measure their hands to see how tall they're going to grow. They measure their arms and legs to see if they would be better as runners or swimmers, the size of their feet. And top US and Australian officials wrapping up a crucial meeting in Maryland. What did they unveil about their strategy as tensions escalate in the South China Sea? More on that after the break, here on China In Focus. Thanks for watching China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you tomorrow.