Tim Walz revises how often he has traveled to China

Kamala Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said he had traveled to China much less often than he had initially emphasized in congressional hearings and media interviews.

“I've been to China dozens of times,” Walz said during a congressional hearing in 2016. “I've been there about 30 times,” Walz told an agriculture-focused publication that same year.

However, a Harris-Walz campaign spokesman recently admitted to Minnesota Public Radio that the number was “more like 15 times.”

The revision comes amid increasing criticism from GOP critics over Walz's possible ties to the People's Republic of China and its ruling Communist Party. Earlier this month, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter renewing pressure on the FBI to release documents related to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) units or officials. with whom Walz had allegedly worked in the past.

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The Harris-Walz campaign is setting the record straight on how many times Gov. Tim Walz has visited China. (Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

According to Walz, he first traveled to China in 1989, in the midst of the Tiananmen Square uprising. Walz was part of the first delegation of American teachers ever to travel to the communist country during the trip. He was a participant in Harvard University's WorldTeach program, which gave Walz the opportunity to live in China for a year and teach young students.

Walz apparently enjoyed his time in China so much that after moving his teaching career to the United States, Walz continued to make annual trips to China with his students. Eventually, Walz founded a company with his wife Gwen called Educational Travel Adventures, Inc., dedicated to taking students on trips to China and other international destinations. On one of their trips in 1993, the two even honeymooned in China. Walz's annual trips with students took place between 1993 and the early 2000s, before he began running for public office.

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Walz and his wife dissolved their student travel company after he won his congressional seat in 2006. However, Walz's China experience was a source of pride for the current vice presidential candidate as he sought to join Congress.

For example, Walz's campaign website at the time highlighted his work as a visiting scholar at Macau Polytechnic University, a university in China with ties to the CCP.

“What we need in education, what we need in the military, and what we need when I promote cultural exchanges with China are real solutions,” Walz also said when he debated incumbent GOP Rep. Gil Gutknecht again in 2006, emphasised his work in China.

However, after Walz became Harris' vice president this year, Minnesota Public Radio began checking into the “dozens” of trips he allegedly took. In the end, they could only confirm that about twelve of them had actually occurred.

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When the news outlet reached out to the Harris campaign for documentation that would prove that the rest of Walz's trips had actually taken place, instead of providing such evidence, they admitted that Walz had previously exaggerated the number of trips he had made to China had, and that this was actually “closer to 15 times” and not “dozens of times”.

The national flags of the United States and China fly at the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai on April 25, 2024. (Wang Gang/VCG via Getty Images)

In addition to apparently making false statements about how often he traveled to China, Walz was also accused of also misrepresenting his rank in the Army National Guard.

“I’m a retired sergeant major,” Walz claimed when he ran for Congress in 2006. However, although Walz only held this rank for a short time, he retired too early to keep it. Walz's resignation also prevented him from deploying to the Middle East, another criticism of the vice presidential candidate who has suggested he saw combat. Meanwhile, it was alleged that Walz and his wife also made false claims about using IVF.

A former National Guard veteran who reportedly served with Walz told talk show host Megyn Kelly that they thought Walz was a “habitual liar.”

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“He is a habitual liar. He lies about everything. He lies about things that don’t make sense.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign but did not receive a response before publication.