Why Harris-Walz is still the better pick for US-China engagement

Walz, though a critic of Beijing, has a genuine affection for China and its people. He’s likely to bring realpolitik to US foreign policy

Harvey Dzodin

Published: 8:30pm, 20 Aug 2024

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There has been a lot of chatter and misinformation online about Tim Walz and his connection to China since US Vice-President Kamala Harris named the Minnesota governor, former congressman, teacher and football coach as her running mate.

Republicans, led by Donald Trump, a convicted felon who clocked up a reported 30,573 false or misleading statements during his presidency, have swallowed the orange Kool-Aid and are painting a weird and false portrait of Walz. Typical drivel includes the post on X by Trump acolyte and potential secretary of state Richard Grenell: “Communist China is very happy with @GovTimWalz as Kamala’s VP pick. No one is more pro-China than Marxist Walz.”

It reminds me of the hilarious ways in which Republicans successfully demonised legendary Florida congressman Claude Pepper in 1950, including by calling him “Red Pepper” for his liberal views, during the anti-communist “red scare”.

Let’s try to set the record straight for Walz.

It is true that young Walz was a high school teacher of American culture and history as well as English in southern China on a programme founded by Harvard students in the momentous 1989-1990 period, and was among the earliest cohort of American teachers in China.

It is also true that he has made more than 30 trips to China and even honeymooned there, giving rise to unsubstantiated accusations that he must have been a spy, based on the weak argument that overworked and underpaid teachers could never have afforded such luxuries. Critics are also incensed that years ago, Walz had the temerity to suggest that the US and China did not need to have an “adversarial relationship”.

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As a football coach at Mankato West High School in Minnesota, Walz took his team from a bunch of losers to state champions in 1999. In China, Walz’s young students at Foshan No 1 High School nicknamed him “Fields of China” for his kindness.

While friendly with the Chinese people, Walz is no fan of China’s Communist Party and has criticised the government. From 2007 to 2018, he served on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which monitors its legal and human rights developments, and was described as a “stalwart” member by the chairman. He was a frequent critic of China’s human rights record – his photo with the Dalai Lama is well-known.

My view is that electorally, Walz’s China affinity will have a modestly negative effect at worst, especially if he and Harris can win over the moderate voters in the swing states. As a Jew, I don’t believe that Walz will seriously imperil the ticket’s chances in the way that Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, an observant Jew whom Harris reportedly considered for running mate, would have.

If Harris-Walz can win the November 5 election – widely seen as a virtual toss-up – it will be a net win for US-China relations, as Walz has a genuine affection for China and its people. Michael Hayden, a former director of the CIA and National Security Agency, has said of Walz’s knowledge of China: “So he knows a lot about it. That’s great.” If Harris wins, Walz would be in a prime position to influence policy in an administration whose leader lacks foreign policy experience, especially with China.

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Knowledge is power and so is personal experience. Walz looks set to be the perfect realpolitik practitioner, capable of building bridges and being frank in private negotiations while publicly displaying a pragmatism – because he “gets” China from having lived there and being familiar with the Chinese culture, language and people.

More than seven decades ago, China’s first premier, Zhou Enlai, was prescient in proposing a model of diplomacy that he called “folk diplomacy”. Today, such a concept is more commonly known as people-to-people connectivity, a key element of a nation’s soft power, its influence in shaping the preferences of others using a toolkit that includes culture, foreign policy and tourism – as distinct from hard power, which involves the use of force and coercion.

In this spirit, what a contrast Walz can offer to the name-calling and the “small yard, high fence” (although in my view, it is actually “big yard, high fence”) erected by the US and its allies to keep China from again becoming a global leader, as it was for millennia during its storied history.

While it may be too much to see an instant reset in US-China relations, even from a Harris-Walz administration, we can at least hope for an initial modus vivendi where both countries can find a coexistence capable of addressing our shared existential challenges.

These challenges are not abstract or wonky, but increasingly part of everyday life. They include global warming and extreme weather, which threaten to destroy life as we know it. They also include preventing the next pandemic, which scientists tell us is a matter of time – and could be just around the corner. And they include the “AA” threats arising from artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons, and the “ABC” threats of atomic, biological and chemical weapons based in the sea, on land or out in space.

Only by building a global community with a shared future and working together, whether bilaterally or in international, regional and multilateral groupings, might we avoid a certain extinction.

Unlike the Trump-Vance Republican team, which I see as false prophets of gloom and doom, I believe a Harris-Walz administration has the potential to slow the downward spiral of US-China relations and engage where we can and must, starting at noon on January 20, 2025.

Dr Harvey Dzodin is a senior fellow of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a former political appointee in the Carter administration and vice-president of ABC-TV