Kevin,

We all know Obama won’t cancel the upcoming state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. As I was reading about Walker’s demand the visit be canceled, I thought “continued state interference with its economy” seemed like a strange choice for a line in the sand. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, Chinese communists gotta interfere with their economy.

To Walker’s credit, he did cite some other Chinese misbehavior, including the massive hack of Office of Personnel Management records, militarization of the South China Sea and persistent persecution of Christians and human rights activists. So yes, this is a bit of kabuki showmanship to demonstrate that Walker, too, is angry at China – on a day every 401(k) holder is probably fuming about their house-of-cards economy – Walker did have some other, better reasons to call for a disinvitation. A bigger question is whether the United States has a better chance of influencing Chinese behavior with or without the summit.