Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate on the Democrat ticket, was groomed by China.
Rubio was responding to an article in the Washington Post that discussed Walz's past in China, framing it as an "asset, not a liability."
"Walz is an example of how Beijing patiently grooms future American leaders," Rubio said on X. "Decades later they get into positions of power, are portrayed as 'experts' by the media and push for policies that allow China to steal our jobs and factories and flood America with drugs."
If elected, Walz would be the highest-level U.S. official to have lived in China, since President George H.W. Bush, who served as ambassador to China in the 1970s.
Walz taught English at a high school in Guangdong and visited China on his honeymoon. He got married on the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and said he has visited the country 30 times.
"The attacks on Walz over his ties to China are surely just beginning. But his experience, knowledge and commitment to the U.S.-China relationship should be seen an asset, not a liability, for both his campaign and the country," Josh Rogin wrote in the Post.
Rubio has been a strident critic of China, accusing it of attempting to undermine and overtake the U.S.
"This is the biggest challenge we have ever faced," Rubio said in a 2023 interview.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.