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Election 2024
Tom Scheck, Curtis Gilbert, Caspar von Au and Forest Hunt
St. Paul

In VP debate, Walz acknowledges he wasn’t in China during Tiananmen uprising

A group photo of students and chaperones in China in 1994.
A group photo of students and chaperones in China in 1994.
Courtesy of Sara Lohmeyer

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Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz acknowledged during Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate that he was not in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent massacre in spring 1989. 

APM Reports, the investigations and documentaries unit of MPR News, first reported that Walz’s claim during a 2014 congressional hearing on the 25th anniversary of the massacre didn’t square up with media accounts in 1989.

During a 2009 congressional hearing and in a 2019 radio interview, Walz also suggested he was in Hong Kong during the protests and massacre. 

CBS News moderators asked Walz about his past comments. 

“You said you were in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protests in 1989,” said Margaret Brennan, moderator of CBS News’ Face the Nation. “But Minnesota Public Radio and other media outlets are reporting that you actually didn’t travel to Asia until August of that year. Can you explain that discrepancy?” 

Walz responded to the question by saying he “misspoke,” that “he has not been perfect” and “has been a knucklehead at times.” He also said insisted that he was in the country during the pro-democracy protests. 

“All I said on this was, I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just — that’s what I’ve said,” Walz said. “I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests went in. And from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in, in governance. 

Walz first visited China as a part of the nonprofit, World Teach, in 1989. News accounts at the time said Walz was preparing to leave for China in August, two months after the spring massacre. Another newspaper showed Walz visiting a Nebraska National Guard armory in May. 

Walz later organized and chaperoned trips for high school students during his time as a high school teacher in Nebraska and Minnesota. He has said in the past that he visited China 30 times but a campaign spokesperson confirmed to APM Reports that Walz visits to the Asian country were closer to 15 times. 

Walz appeared Tuesday night in the only scheduled vice presidential debate against Republican nominee JD Vance. 

During the debate, Walz said he learned a lot during his trips to China and used his time to criticize former President Donald Trump. 

“I would make the case that Donald Trump should have come on one of those trips with us,” Walz said. “I guarantee you he wouldn’t be praising [Chinese President] Xi Jinping about COVID and he wouldn’t start a trade war that he would end up losing.”