Harris running mate's background raises eyebrows in China

US presidential candidate Kamala Harris's choice of Tim Walz as her running mate has raised eyebrows, and plenty of questions, in China, which he first visited in 1989, the year the military crushed pro-democracy protests.

Demonstrators spent weeks on Beijing's Tiananmen Square demanding democracy before the military conducted a deadly crackdown on June 4, 1989.

Walz was married on the fifth anniversary of that politically sensitive date.

Discussion of the events at Tiananmen is strictly censored in China but many social media users made veiled references Wednesday to the timing of Walz's stint in the country.

The 60-year-old Minnesota governor and former schoolteacher has visited China dozens of times, including on summer trips with student groups for sightseeing and cultural exchange.

He first travelled there in 1989, moving to Foshan, a city in China's southern Guangdong province, for a year of teaching English at a local high school, according to media reports at the time.

Walz married his wife Gwen on June 4, 1994, an article in a local US newspaper said.

"He wanted to have a date he'll always remember," his wife was quoted as saying.

On Wednesday, social media users in China questioned the timing of Walz's 1989 arrival in the country and suggested ulterior motives.

"He came to China at a time of turmoil, clearly with a special mission," one user commented on the platform Weibo.

"Is he from the CIA?" another wrote.

"Look at the year and you can't help but be sceptical," chimed in a third.

-'Definite influence' -

Walz has pushed back against the assertion that the United States and China are necessary adversaries, a view widespread in Washington in recent years as trade and geopolitical disagreements with Beijing mount.

"I lived in China and as I said I've been there about 30 times," he told farming news website Agri-Pulse in a 2016 interview.

"But if someone tells you they're an expert on China they're probably not telling you the truth because it's a complex country," he said.

But despite his positive comments on Chinese people and culture, Walz has also been critical of its government, telling local US media in 1990 that with "proper leadership" the country could achieve great success.

In 2016, while representing Minnesota in the US House of Representatives, he met with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader denounced by Beijing as a dangerous separatist.

China's foreign ministry told AFP Wednesday that it would not comment on Harris's choice of Walz as a running mate, calling the election an internal affair of the United States.

"We hope the US side can work with the Chinese side to move in the same direction," the statement said.

Social media users wondered what Walz's personal connection to their country might mean if elected.

"If Harris is elected president, Vice President Walz will have a definite influence on her China policy," one user wrote.

And under one post featuring Walz's comments from a 2016 interview in which he pointed out that the United States and China had potential for cooperation, other users waxed sceptical.

"2016 was a previous era," one wrote.

"Don't negligently assign a persona to your opponent."