Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said China is likely the one "moral authority" in the world that can negotiate a peace between Iran and Israel following the preemptive strike by the Jewish state, the New York Post reported.
During an event Friday at the Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the organization and an official in the administration of former President Joe Biden, asked Walz his opinion on the events in the Middle East.
"I don't think we can leave this discussion without just asking you broadly about what happened last night," she said. "A very eventful day on many scores, but the fact that we have Israel striking Iran is escalatory. I think that would be an understatement. So what are your thoughts on that?"
Walz responded, "Who is the voice in the world that can negotiate some type of agreement in this? Who holds the moral authority, who holds the ability to do that? Because we are not seen as a neutral actor, and we maybe never were."
The 2024 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate answered his own question: "It might be the Chinese."
Walz claims to have visited China dozens of times. He worked as an English teacher while briefly dating a Communist Party official's daughter. The governor has praised the Chinese system, saying in 1991: "It means that everyone is the same and everyone shares. The doctor and the construction worker make the same. They get food and housing."
China has a well-documented record of human rights abuses of the Uyghurs, the country's Muslim minority.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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