Walz brings extensive China experience to Democratic ticket

HONG KONG — Before being named Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz’s career included extensive experience with China — a relationship that drew immediate GOP criticism and became a hot topic of discussion on Chinese social media Wednesday.

The Minnesota governor's ties with the country, which stretch back to his first days out of college, have been a constant in his career.

His history with Beijing — which increasing numbers of Americans view as an “enemy” — could be a point of contention in the presidential campaign at a time when being tough on the rival superpower is one of the few issues both parties can agree on.

Walz’s stance on China, a country he says he has been to about 30 times, appears to be broadly in line with that of the Biden-Harris administration, which is “managing competition” with the world’s second-largest economy while also looking for opportunities to cooperate on issues of global import such as climate change.

While Walz has been critical of the ruling Communist Party, as well as of China’s trade practices and growing aggression in the South China Sea, he says there are “many areas of cooperation that we can work on.”

“I don’t fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship,” he said in a video interview in 2016.