Yahoo News What We Know About Alleged 'Secret Affair' Walz Had with Chinese Communist Party Official's Daughter
Jenna Wang told the Daily Mail and New York Post she had a relationship with U.S. Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz in China, beginning in 1989. Walz, who was not married then, was part of a group of Americans teaching in China. The relationship was "secret" because Wang had to hide its existence from her father, who was a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Harris-Walz campaign has not commented on Wang's assertions.
Wang and Walz allegedly broke up because Wang expected a marriage proposal. When that didn't happen, she told media outlets she felt suicidal. She wrote that she remained in love with Walz until 2020.
In an open letter, Wang stated that her father was a high-ranking member of the CCP "at the local level." Even if her father's credentials are not exaggerated, they would not, based on Wang's own testimony, provide evidence of a nefarious connection between Walz and China, as alleged by opponents of the Harris-Walz campaign.
As of this writing, Wang was raising money for a "missionary" via a GoFundMe campaign. Via that website, Snopes attempted to contact Wang. In response, a man named Robert Gruber replied from an email address in Wang's name. He did not allow us to speak directly with Wang, but explained to Snopes that they were "in this together."
On Oct. 28, 2024, the Daily Mail and the New York Post both ran stories about a relationship between Democratic U.S. Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz and a Chinese woman that allegedly occurred between 1989 and 1992:
The story was used as fodder for attacks against Walz in the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election. Broadly, these attacks focused on either Walz's treatment of Wang or his allegedly having nefarious connections to China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The campaign for Walz and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris declined to comment for this story, and they have not issued any confirmation or denial of the relationship to the news outlets that first reported the claims.
Taking Wang's claims — which are supported by some photographic and other evidence published by the Daily Mail below — at face value, she describes a serious relationship between two people in their 20s that ended in heartbreak after mutual miscommunications.
(DailyMail.com)
Headlines or viral social media posts extrapolating anything further from Wang's testimony did so in spite of her own testimony.
In this article, Snopes explains the origins of this story and why certain political talking points based on it are flawed. We also report that the claims are being promoted in part to raise money for a ministry using a GoFundMe page.
The Relationship
Following his graduation from college, Walz participated in the Harvard University-sponsored WorldTeach program, which places American volunteers in foreign countries to teach English and other subjects. He first arrived in Guangdong province in August 1989 and taught at a school that was close to a school where Wang worked.
The Daily Mail — the first outlet to report on Wang's claims — described the origin of her relationship with Walz this way:
It was several months after he arrived in Foshan that Walz is said to have fallen head over heels for Wang, a pretty, highly educated English language teacher at the nearby No. 8 Middle School.
She was attending one of his lectures to brush up on her pronunciation when the then-25-year-old Walz slipped her headphones aside and whispered into her ear: 'You are very beautiful.' [...]
During the summer Walz returned to the US but wrote letters to Wang, giving vivid depictions of his life and teaching job in Alliance, Nebraska. [...] At Walz's direction, Wang says she sent off a passport photo and information about herself to an address in the States, believing it was part of the process to secure her a visa.
When the future running mate of presidential hopeful Kamala Harris flew back to China in 1992, she resigned her coveted teaching role, believing she was about to embark on a new life. [...] When the pair reached Hainan Island [during a 10-day trip on that visit], Wang was ready to confront [Walz] about their future plans. [...]
Walz responded by suggesting that Wang was more interested in a US passport than marriage. [...] The next morning Wang slipped out of their hotel and took a taxi to a remote clifftop where she says she contemplated throwing herself off rather than returning to her old life in disgrace.
After the Daily Mail and New York Post ran this story, Wang posted an "open letter" to Walz on the blogging platform Medium that elaborated on the above narrative. That letter is political, taking jabs at both Harris and Walz.
After he left in 1990, Walz apparently and allegedly planned and prepared for the process of bringing her to the United States, according to the post.
When he returned to visit her in 1992, she wrote, he came with an uncle who owned a bar where Walz told her she could work, presumably as part of a work visa requirement:
You had asked me, about a year before, to send some basic, personal information about myself, along with a passport-size photo [...]. When you had returned to China, and as a surprise to me, you spoke about me working for your Uncle Bob at his bar!
You told me this: You wanted me to come to the USA, but you were not ready to marry me (it was also at that point that I first learned of your bizarre-to-me plan to get me into America via your Uncle Bob). [...]
As you knew, both I was privileged in China and my father was a high-up member of the Communist Party at the local level. [...] Therefore, if there was no good-enough cause, my parents and kin considered it dishonorable for a family member to leave China for America. [...] However, when you had returned to China, and as a surprise to me, you spoke about me working for your Uncle Bob at his bar! But I was already a university graduate with a prestigious teaching job!
My shock partly arose because I could not believe that you had expected me to come to Nebraska and give up everything for you — without you offering me a marriage vow so that I could have faith in you. [...] After my stunned response, you questioned me: Did I want to be your wife or did I want to come to the States? My reply was, All or nothing!
Though she reportedly never told Walz this fact at the time, Wang told reporters she became suicidal and contemplated throwing herself off of a cliff after this fight. In her open letter, Wang explicitly noted that Walz had never made any promises about marriage. She also stated that she remained "in love" with him until 2020, when her faith in God allowed her to unburden herself from that connection:
Because we cannot always control our emotions, I still loved you romantically all the way until 2020, that is, until 28-years after we had broken up! [...] [In 2020,] after nine days of spiritual struggle, I finally decided to repent of all my own sins and to forgive everyone (which included forgiving myself). [...]
I became a disciple of Jesus Christ. Then, my own life began to change and God thankfully delivered me from the heavy burden of having been in romantic love with you for the past 30 years. At that time, God opened my eyes to so much more. While my romantic, human love for you stopped, my divine love for you began and will always continue.
If all of the allegations regarding their relationship are true as relayed by Wang, then the major revelation from the New York Post's and Daily Mail's reporting was that a 25-year-old Walz had a romantic and sexual relationship with a 24-year-old fellow teacher while working abroad in China from 1989 to 1992, when Walz invited her to America without first proposing marriage.
This was not an extramarital "affair" kept secret, as some suggested, as neither party was married at the time. It also does not appear to have been merely a "fling," as it was serious enough for Walz to reportedly devise a plan to bring her back to America with his uncle. It was, however, secret — largely because Wang feared what her father might think about it.
High-Ranking CCP Official
In her open letter, Wang explained that she was afraid of what her father would think about her daughter consorting with a Westerner. She described him as a "a high-up member of the Communist Party at the local level" and "part of the old revolutionary base," stating that "he had been with the Communist Party from a time before Mao got big."
She also wrote that he was "part of the Chinese special service," and later served as "chairman of the local [CCP-run] labor union." The Post said that her father, Bin Hui, was "a labor union leader in her hometown of Guilin."
Assuming all of these facts are true, they still do not justify the description of him as a "Top Chinese Communist Party Official" by the Daily Mail and other outlets. He was, according to Wang's own reports, a high-up member "at the local level" — a qualifier almost unanimously excluded in headlines. That local level was her hometown of Guilin.
Further undercutting claims that Wang's decades-old alleged relationship with Walz presents a plausible connection to, or affinity for, Chinese communism are the facts that the relationship was kept secret, that Walz did not bring her back to the United States in 1992, and that Wang's father died in 1999.
As for Wang herself, she is no longer a citizen of China, much less a member of the CCP. She emigrated from China, she said, in 1993 and has since become a practicing Christian. In her open letter, Wang wrote:
After we broke up, I had to escape from China because of the wreck that had been made of my life there. I am not even a Chinese citizen anymore; and, I have not been one for more than 25 years. In fact, in 1993, I emigrated away from China: only a year after we last saw each other in 1992.
In sum, the fact that Walz dated the daughter of a local Chinese official 28 years ago is not evidence of an affinity for communism, nor does it provide any plausible present-day link between China and Walz.
GoFundMe Initiative
The New York Post story linked to the open letter Wang published on Medium. That post includes a link to a GoFundMe set up in Jenna Wang's name:
The campaign, titled "Support Jenna Wang: A Journey of Healing and Truth," is raising money "for the greatly needed support of Jenna Wang and her ministry." The open letter ends with a link to the fundraiser. "If you would like to help Jenna financially with her mission and life's expenses (since Covid, she has sometimes been in near poverty)," she wrote, "go to this GoFundMe page."
Snopes attempted to contact Wang via this GoFundMe page. In response to our message, a man named Mark Gruber responded from an email address that used her name and included a photo of her. Gruber did not allow us to speak with Wang, nor did he explain the nature of his use of an email account that bore her name and face.
Gruber told Snopes that "she and I are in this together, including ministry." The ministry, the GoFundMe page states, "preaches the teaching of another missionary, Mark Gruber." That teaching is to define God as "truth." Doing so could unite everyone, "even 'atheists," around "the American motto!"
While at the time of this reporting the campaign had not raised any money, its existence, coupled with the election-month timing of Wang's testimony, the involvement of a third party, and that person's insistence to speak on behalf of the person while promoting his own theology, raise questions about the true intent of this campaign.
The Bottom Line
Taking all of Wang's assertions at face value, Walz and Wang were in a relationship from 1989 to 1992. It ended over her requirement they get married before she moved back with him to the U.S. Her father, who died in 1999, was not a "top CCP official" in any national sense, but may have been important on a local level. Wang is no longer a Chinese citizen. At the time of this writing, she was raising money for a ministry based on this past, alleged connection to Walz.
Sources:
Ashford, Ben. "Tim Walz Had Secret Fling with Chinese Communist's Daughter." Mail Online, 28 Oct. 2024, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14012181/tim-walz-fling-china-communist-daughter-kamala-harris-vp.html.
Christenson, Josh. Tim Walz Accused of Pushing Chinese Communist Party Official's Daughter to Brink of Suicide during 1980s Affair. 28 Oct. 2024, https://nypost.com/2024/10/28/us-news/tim-walz-accused-of-pushing-chinese-communist-party-officials-daughter-to-brink-of-suicide-during-1980s-affair/.
"Donate to Support Jenna Wang: A Journey of Healing and Truth, Organized by Mark Gruber." Gofundme.Com, https://www.gofundme.com/f/revelation-of-jenna-wang-her-mission-of-healing-and-truth. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.
"Open Letter to Tim Walz from Jenna Wang." Medium, https://medium.com/@jennawang777/intro-to-open-letter-and-open-letter-to-tim. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.
Raasch, Jon Michael. "Tim Walz Has Been 'infiltrated' by the CCP after Fling Revealed." Mail Online, 29 Oct. 2024, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14015461/tim-walz-infiltrated-ccp-relationship-officials-daughter.html.
Ruwitch, John. "Tim Walz Made an Impression in China, Students and Teachers Say." NPR, 20 Aug. 2024. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2024/08/19/nx-s1-5081407/tim-walz-china-study-abroad.
