明尼苏达州州长提姆·瓦茨（Tim Walz）在周二晚上的副总统辩论中表示，他“表述有误”当他此前称自己曾在1989年春天访问香港并参与了中国天安门广场的抗议活动。然而，他的这一辩解随后引发了对他旅行记录的一系列报告质疑，这些报道与他曾做出的关于前往中国的说法相矛盾。
瓦茨州长提到这一点是在CBS新闻主持人就他过去言论和媒体报道之间的不一致提出具体问题后。他先是称自己“表述有误”，然后补充说明：“我在1989年夏天来到这里并进行了错误描述。现在我只是这么说，我在香港以及中国参与了民主抗议。”
瓦茨州长过去常常在成为政治家之前作为教师组织并且监管前往中国的旅行团。他曾声称自己是在“五月份”去了香港，这一时间点位于北京天安门大屠杀事件之后几周。
2014年，在纪念天安门广场抗议事件的二十五周年之际，瓦茨州长（当时担任明尼苏达州国会议员）在国会-行政部门中国委员会会议上提到自己具体的行程：“在我年轻时，我原计划到广东省佛山的一所高中任教。我在1989年五月份去了香港。而那时，事件正在发展。我还记得在香港的火车站。”
“在一个关键的时间点在一家中国高中的经历对我来说非常重要，那个夏天以及随后的时间里发生的事情都令人难以置信。因为您肯定不能将新闻封锁所有人，如果他们想要获取消息的话”，他继续说道。
瓦茨州长还声称自己在1989年6月4日那天在香港（天安门大屠杀当天），并在会后去了中国。“在六月四日那一天，我在香港发生了天安门广场事件。我在中国之后的这段时间里也一直在。”他说，“那时情况非常奇怪，因为所有的外界通讯都被封锁了——美国之音——当然也没有电话或电子邮件等任何形式的信息。所以我是失联的状态，直到一个月后才知道柏林墙倒塌的消息。”
2016年的一次采访中，他声称自己曾访问过中国“大约30次”。在2016年国会-行政部门中国委员会的另一次会议中，瓦茨州长称自己曾经多次访问香港。哈里斯竞选团队无法为瓦茨的香港之行提供证据来支撑他的说法。
一个接近瓦茨州长的消息人士向CNN表示：“瓦茨州长讨论这些事件时所做出的要点是，世界教师项目的一些人决定在天安门广场事件之后退出，但他继续参与该计划，因为他相信这对中国人了解美国民主和历史至关重要。”
明尼苏达公共广播电台新闻与APM报告首次报道了这起冲突。瓦茨州长似乎夸大了自己的中国旅行次数。2016年的一次采访中，他说自己访问过中国“约30次”。在另一次国会-行政部门中国委员会会议上，他在提到香港时声称曾“数十次、几十次地前往”。
哈里斯竞选团队发言人告诉CNN：“瓦茨州长前往中国的旅行次数可能更接近于15次。”
自从加入哈里斯的竞选团队后，瓦茨州长很少提及中国或他前往该国的历史。最近几天，共和党人将瓦茨与中国的联系作为进一步审查的目标。特朗普竞选团队高级顾问杰森·米勒表示预计文策尔（Vance）将在周二晚上的辩论中攻击瓦茨关于访问中国的记录。
国会共和党人在特朗普竞选团队的呼吁下质疑了瓦茨与中国的关系。众议院监督委员会主席詹姆斯·库默周一向美国国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约卡斯发出传票，要求提供与瓦茨有关的信息，以回应“由给委员会提供的举报披露”中的指控，即瓦茨与中国共产党有联系。
这封传票是共和党人对9月份启动的针对瓦茨与中国关系调查的最新一步。此次调查始于8月他加入民主党竞选名单之后。对瓦茨旅行到中国和香港的一系列不一致描述揭示了自成为哈里斯竞选伙伴以来，该州长过去陈述中的准确性问题。
在八月，哈里斯团队发言人称瓦茨“表述有误”在他2018年的视频中说他曾持有攻击性武器“在战争中使用”。一个月后，Gwen Walz澄清他们夫妇二人使用了除试管婴儿之外的其他生育治疗方式，以解释她在丈夫提及使用IVF时所说的情况。更正后的故事和标题准确反映了Tim Walz对亚洲旅行的过去说法不实。他的说法是他1989年期间访问香港。
故事及标题已更新并添加了Walz周二晚辩论中的发言。
新闻来源：www.cnn.com
原文地址：Walz says he ‘misspoke’ after unearthed newspaper reports undercut claim he was in Hong Kong during Tiananmen Square protests
新闻日期：2024-10-01
原文摘要：
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said on Tuesday he “misspoke” when he previously said he’d visited Hong Kong in the spring of 1989 during protests in China’s Tiananmen Square but insisted he “was in Hong Kong and China” during the pro-democracy protests. His comments during Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate followed the unearthing of reports that contradict previous claims he made about his travel to China, including a claim that the Democratic vice presidential nominee was in Hong Kong preparing for a teaching position in 1989 during the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests that ended in hundreds of protesters killed by the Chinese government. “My community knows who I am. They saw where I was at,” Walz said during the debate. “Look, I will be the first to tell you, I have poured my heart into my community. I’ve tried to do the best I can, but I’ve not been perfect, and I’m a knucklehead at times, but it’s always been about that. Those same people elected me to Congress for 12 years.” When pressed by CBS News’ moderators specifically about the discrepancy between his past comments and the media reports on his travel, Walz first said he “misspoke” on this. “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,” he said, before adding, “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,” he said. Walz regularly organized and chaperoned trips to China during his time as a teacher prior to entering politics. He previously said he visited Hong Kong in “May of ’89,” weeks before the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. During a 2014 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China honoring the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, Walz, then a Minnesota congressman, appeared to recall specific details of his trip to the region at that time. “As a young man, I was just going to teach high school in Foshan in Guangdong, and was in Hong Kong in May of ’89,” he said. “And as the events were unfolding, several of us went in. And I still remember the train station in Hong Kong.” “The opportunity to be in a Chinese high school at that critical time seemed to me to be really important. And it was a very interesting summer to say the least. Because if you recall, as we moved in that summer and further on and the news blackouts and things that went on, you certainly can’t black out news from people if they want to get it,” he continued. Walz further claimed in a June 2019 radio interview that he was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989 – the day of the Tiananmen Square massacre. “I was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989, when, of course, Tiananmen Square happened. And I was in China after that. It was very strange ‘cause, of course, all outside transmissions were, were blocked – Voice of America – and, of course, there was no, no phones or email or anything. So I was kind of out of touch. It took me a month to know the Berlin Wall had fallen when I was living there,” he said. During a 2009 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to commemorate the Tiananmen Square protests, Walz claimed that he was in Hong Kong at the time, preparing to go teach in China. “Twenty years ago today, I was in Hong Kong preparing to go to Foshan to teach at Foshan No. 1 Middle School,” he said. “To watch what happened at the end of the day on June 4 was something that many of us will never forget, we pledge to never forget, and bearing witness and accurate telling of history is absolutely crucial for any nation to move forward.” Walz’s claims that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests have been repeated in media reports. But contemporaneous newspaper reports first resurfaced by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, place Walz in Nebraska around that time. An issue of the Alliance Times-Herald dated May 16, 1989, features a photo of Walz touring a Nebraska National Guard storeroom. In the photo’s caption, the paper notes that Walz “will take over the job” of staffing the storeroom from a retiring guardsman and “will be moving to Alliance,” Nebraska. A separate newspaper article about Walz’s planned trip to China published by a Nebraska-based outlet in April 1989 reported that he planned to travel to China in early August of that year. When asked by CNN if Walz was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests, the Harris campaign was unable to provide evidence to substantiate Walz’s claim. A source close to Walz told CNN that “the point Gov. Walz is making when he discusses this is that some folks in the World Teach program discussed dropping out after Tiananmen Square, but he continued on with the program because he believed it was important for the Chinese people to learn about American democracy and American history.” The contradiction was first reported by Minnesota Public Radio News and APM Reports. Walz also appears to have exaggerated the number of times he’s traveled to China. In a 2016 interview, he said he’s visited China “about 30 times.” In another meeting of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, in 2016, Walz claimed to have visited Hong Kong “dozens and dozens and dozens of times.” When asked for clarification on how many times Walz traveled to China, a Harris campaign spokesperson told CNN the number of trips Walz took to China is “likely closer to 15.” China has long held a significant place in Walz’s life since he first traveled to the country in 1989. Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, were married on June 4, 1994 – the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and spent their honeymoon leading students in an educational trip to China, something Walz did regularly during his time as a teacher before joining Congress. Ahead of their wedding, Gwen Walz told the Nebraska-based Star-Herald newspaper that they planned to get married on the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary because “he wanted to have a date he’ll always remember.” Since joining the Harris campaign, Walz has not spoken at length about China or his history of travel to the country. Republicans in recent days have circled Walz’s ties to China as a target for further scrutiny. Jason Miller, a senior advisor to Donald Trump’s campaign, indicated Monday that he expects Vance to attack Walz for his history of trips to China. “Tiananmen Tim! Funny they’re changing this now – we were planning on calling him out for this at the debate tomorrow night! Anything else you want to fess up to, Tim???,” Miller said in a social media post in response to clarification offered by the Harris campaign about Walz’s trips to China. Congressional Republicans have joined the Trump campaign in calling into question Walz’s ties to China. House Oversight Chairman James Comer subpoenaed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday for documents related to Walz as part of allegations made by “whistleblower disclosures” provided to the committee that Walz has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The subpoena is the latest step by House Republicans to spotlight Walz’s ties to China through a probe that began in August shortly after he joined the Democratic ticket. The inconsistencies around Walz’s travel to China and Hong Kong mark the latest instance in which the governor’s past comments have been revealed to be inaccurate since he became the Democratic vice presidential nominee. In August, a Harris campaign spokesperson said Walz “misspoke” in a 2018 video in which he said he handled assault weapons “in war.” Later that month, Gwen Walz clarified that the couple had used a fertility treatment other than in vitro fertilization to conceive after her husband had suggested they had used IVF. CORRECTION: This story and headline have been updated to accurately reflect Tim Walz’s past claims of travel to Asia in 1989. He claimed he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests. This story and headline have been updated with Walz’s remarks during Tuesday night’s debate.
