Walz Praised Chinese Communism as a System Where 'Everyone Shares'

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.