Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon documents Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s positive comments about Chinese communism.

As a high school teacher in the 1990s, Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota governor Tim Walz appeared to extol life under Chinese communism, telling his students that it is a system in which “everyone shares” and gets free food and housing.

“It means that everyone is the same and everyone shares,” Walz said during a lesson on China’s communist system in November 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.”

Walz’s remarks were reported in a 1991 article in Nebraska’s Alliance Times-Herald that focused on his work on student exchange programs in China. At the time, Walz was teaching social studies at a Nebraska high school.

The unearthed comments could add to concerns about the Democratic vice presidential candidate’s relationship with China, where he traveled extensively for decades and which he says he doesn’t see as an adversary.

Michael Sobolik, a China expert and the author of Countering China’s Great Game, said Walz’s comments to students were a “shockingly naïve description of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule.”

“American students need to learn the horrific truths of communism and the horrors this dangerous ideology has wrought over the past century,” said Sobolik. “Gov. Walz should clarify his comments and share his impression of communism in 2024.”

Walz’s rosy description of communism in China is similar to his recent controversial remark that “one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” It also reflects his longstanding ties to the country.

The candidate “always has been fascinated by Communist China,” according to a profile about him published in Nebraska’s Star-Herald in 1994. As a child, he recalled seeing “pictures of Mao Tse-tung, hung in public places and carried in parades,” the paper reported.