Tim Walz would like to take Donald Trump to China — or at least that is what he said during this week’s vice-presidential debate.
Walz taught in southern China as a post-grad in his twenties. And later, as a high school teacher in Nebraska and Minnesota, he led students on field trips to the country from 1994 to 2005. “I would make the case that Donald Trump should have come on one of those trips with us,” he said during the debate. “I guarantee you he wouldn’t be praising Xi Jinping about Covid, and I guarantee you he wouldn’t start a trade war that he ends up losing.”
So, what would Trump have learned on a field trip to China with Walz? Conversations with four students and a chaperone who traveled with Walz in 2005 gave us a glimpse into the itinerary that might have been.
Trump would have traveled along with 23 students on a two-week trek across the country, from a local school in South China to the Forbidden City in Beijing. He wouldn’t have appeared in any press conferences with government leaders. But he would have learned how to haggle with street vendors. He’d have figured out how to communicate through soccer when words fail. He would have learned to appreciate people from another culture — chatting with them on overnight trains, riding bikes alongside their monuments, seeing their towns and homes up close. And he’d even have gotten some pampering at a group foot massage Walz booked for everyone.