On Monday, Walker tried to distract people from his immigration waffling by demanding that President Barack Obama cancel an upcoming state visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping:
Gov. Scott Walker on Monday called for President Barack Obama to cancel Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States, urging the president to show "some backbone."
Jinping is scheduled to visit the U.S. in September.
Walker's statement comes in the midst of plummeting stock prices in the U.S., a result of global concerns tied to China's economic slowdown. The drop is being referred to in China as "Black Monday."
"Americans are struggling to cope with the fall in today's markets driven in part by China's slowing economy and the fact that they actively manipulate their economy. Rather than honoring Chinese President Xi Jinping with an official state visit next month, President Obama should focus on holding China accountable over its increasing attempts to undermine U.S. interests," Walker said in a statement.
"Given China’s massive cyberattacks against America, its militarization of the South China Sea, continued state interference with its economy, and persistent persecution of Christians and human rights activists, President Obama needs to cancel the state visit," he continued. "There's serious work to be done rather than pomp and circumstance. We need to see some backbone from President Obama on U.S.-China relations."
That's a complete reversal from the praise that Walker gave to the Chinese economy just two years ago, when he went there for a trade mission:
“In a lot of states in America, we’d like to have that kind of slow growth they are projecting” even in some of China’s slower-expanding regions, said Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in an interview in Shanghai last week. “We’re still very big on doing business in Shanghai in particular, but throughout the country, “ said Walker, expressing confidence that commerce between China and his state would increase quickly in the future. “I just see it taking off,” he said.
Walker was in China last week to help boost exchanges between one of the world’s fastes-growing major economies and the U.S. Midwestern state. He attended a China-U.S. Governors Forum in Beijing and Tianjin before arriving in Shanghai to open a new state office to promote trade and other exchanges. (See earlier post here.) Walker met Chinese President Xi Jinping on his trip.
It goes without saying that Walker's faux concern would be more credible if he didn't have that second waffle of keeping his plan to send another trade mission to China in January 2016.
But wait! As with all things Walker, there's more. There's always more.
Not only is Walker waffling about China from a foreign policy standpoint, but there is also a helping of his immigration waffling!
As the gentle reader is aware, Walker has been waffling all over about immigration but is trying to take a strong anti-immigration standpoint. Well, there is one area regarding immigration that Walker has been consistent on - allowing wealthy Chinese to come to our country:
Gov. Scott Walker has been trying to turn himself into an anti-immigration crusader as he gears up to run for president in 2016.
But there's one federal visa program you won't hear him attack. It's the controversial and deeply troubled immigrant investor program.
The program — known as EB-5 — puts wealthy foreigners on the path to U.S. citizenship if they invest at least $500,000 in an American commercial project that will create or preserve 10 jobs.
Critics have called the abuse-riddled program a "scam" that essentially sells green cards to the affluent and their families, with more than 80% of those in the program coming from China.
But Walker has long been a champion of EB-5 visas, which grant permanent U.S. residence.
By the way, the Wisconsin connection to this is a company called FirstPathway Partners, the CEO of which just so happens - purely coincidence, I'm sure - to be a big campaign donor for Walker. And then there's this:
What's more, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerceheads up the seven-county EB-5 regional center, which sponsors and vets investment projects funded with these foreign dollars in southeast Wisconsin.
Since 2010, MMAC has poured more than $1.8 million into two nonprofits — the Republican Governors Association and Wisconsin Club for Growth — that have spent big to help Walker win three times statewide over the past five years.
Being the Waffle King, Walker ought to know that there is nothing that goes better with Chinese waffles than some pay-for-play-berry syrup.
