During the first and only vice presidential debate of the 2024 presidential election, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz admitted that he made “false statements” about his time in China during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Walz has repeatedly claimed that he was in China because of the protests during his year-long stint as a high school teacher in the southeastern Chinese city of Foshan.

In February, Walz said in an episode of the “Pod Save America” podcast that he was in Hong Kong during the protests. “I was in Hong Kong when it happened – I was in Hong Kong on June 4 when Tiananmen took place… Quite a few of our people decided not to go there,” he said.

It appears that Walz did not actually travel to the region until August 1989, according to local newspaper clippings obtained by ABC News. The pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which led to a deadly crackdown by the Chinese government, lasted from April 15 to June 4 of that year, ending about two months before Walz’s trip to the country.

Pressed to clarify news reports refuting such claims, Walz said that he had “misrepresented” his previous claims, but then reiterated that he was “in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests.”

While he sidestepped questions about whether he was telling the truth about the timing of his trip, Walz defended his character by admitting that he has slip-ups, is “not perfect” and is “a jerk sometimes.”

This is another example of how Walz appears to have spoken incorrectly about his past.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee previously came under fire for his military record. Critics criticized the way he characterized his experiences and pointed out instances where he failed to correct inaccuracies.

In addition to Walz repeatedly saying that he was retiring with a rank that he achieved but did not retire with, the Harris-Walz campaign admitted that he misspoke, when he declared in 2018 that he carried weapons of war “in war.”