Minnesota governor and former vice presidential nominee Tim Walz bemoaned that the United States is "not seen as a neutral actor" in the Middle East and thus questioned which "voice in the world" could negotiate a truce between Israel and Iran. Moments later, he answered his own question: "It might be the Chinese."
Walz's comments came during a Center for American Progress panel on Friday. Asked about Israel's strikes on Iran, he started by condemning the "situation in Gaza" and touting "a two-state solution where we can allow folks to live peacefully and coexist." He then questioned how the conflict between Israel and Iran could end.
"Now, who is the voice in the world that can negotiate some type of agreement in this?" Walz asked. "Who holds the moral authority? Who holds the ability to do that? Because we are not seen as a neutral actor, and we maybe never were."
"Now I ask who that is," he continued, "and I mean, consistently, over and over again, we're going to have to face the reality: It might be the Chinese."
Walz has a long history of applauding China's communist system that extends back before he first held elected office.
As a high school teacher in the 1990s, Walz praised China as a place where "everyone shares," the Washington Free Beacon reported during the 2024 presidential campaign.
"It means that everyone is the same and everyone shares," he taught his students in a lesson on Chinese communism in 1991. "The doctor and the construction worker make the same. The Chinese government and the place they work for provide housing and 14 kg or about 30 pounds of rice per month. They get food and housing."
A 1994 profile of Walz in Nebraska newspaper the Star-Herald, meanwhile, noted that Walz "always has been fascinated by Communist China." After his first of many trips to the PRC in 1989, he gave the country high marks.
"No matter how long I live, I'll never be treated that well again," he told the Alliance Times-Herald after arriving home. "They gave me more gifts than I could bring home. It was an excellent experience."
Walz repeatedly claimed to have been in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, but contemporaneous local news reports showed that he was in Nebraska at the time.