Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz faces explosive allegations about a sexual affair with the daughter of a Chinese Communist Party official during his 1989 teaching stint in China, according to multiple reports.
Jenna Wang, 59, told reporters that she and Walz developed a relationship while he was teaching English at No. 1 High School in Foshan, Guangdong Province, where she attended his lectures to improve her English. At the time, Wang was teaching at the nearby No. 8 Middle School at the time.
The affair reportedly left her angry and suicidal after Walz left her feeling “like a prostitute,” she said.
“Tim was very passionate and very romantic. I can still remember dancing with him to our favorite song, Careless Whisper,” Wang told The Daily Mail. “The fact we couldn’t touch or kiss in public just made it all the more exciting and intense when we were finally alone.”
The relationship remained secret due to her father Bin Hui’s position as a high-ranking Communist Party official and labor union chairman in Guilin. Wang claims Walz would travel to Hong Kong and Macau on weekends, bringing back Western goods like Ray-Ban sunglasses and jewelry.
The relationship intensified when Walz returned to China in 1992 after a summer in the United States. Wang says she resigned from her teaching position, expecting a marriage proposal to make her an honest woman.
“I wasn’t giving up my life and my position to move to Nebraska, a cold place in the middle of nowhere that most Chinese people had never heard of,” Wang said. “I was giving it up to be with Tim, to get married and start a family.”
The relationship ended abruptly during a trip to Hainan Island after it became clear that no such proposal from Walz was ever coming.
“Knowing that he wasn’t going to marry me made me feel cheap and common, as if I was being treated like a prostitute,” Wang said. “I was deeply insulted, hurt, and I had to leave that place, because many people knew that we had a relationship.”
Walz eventually married Gwen Whipple in 1994 after returning to the United States. Wang later relocated to Europe, where she works as a teacher and translator. The two last communicated via Facebook in 2009.
These allegations emerge as Walz faces a scandal over lies about being in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Records show he didn’t arrive in China until August 1989, after the protests.