Two American allies slammed President Joe Biden after he insulted them for not copying America’s increasingly ruinous open-border policies.
It may have been bad enough that Biden, who leads an America teetering on recession, criticized Japan and India, respectively, last week for underperforming economically and, in the same speech, made at a campaign fundraiser, lumped those allies in with our primary enemies, China and Russia.
But Biden compounded his diplomatic misstep by calling both Japan and India “xenophobic” for not throwing open the gates to all comers.
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“You know, one of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said at the May 1 event, according to the Epoch Times.
“Look, think about it. Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants,” he added.
After White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre attempted to clean up Biden’s remarks, saying he meant to point out that the U.S. is a “nation of immigrants,” Japan struck a conciliatory, almost forgiving tone.
Still, in its initial comments, Japanese diplomats at the nation’s embassy in the U.S. said in a statement, “It is unfortunate that some of the comments were not based on an accurate understanding of Japan’s policies, and we have raised this point to the U.S. government and explained Japan’s positions and policies once again.”
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Individual Japanese lawmakers were a tad more harsh, according to Fox News on Saturday.
“Migration is a problem that European leaders are struggling with, too. There aren’t any countries that have solved this problem as of now,” Mizuho Umemura, a member of the conservative Nippon Ishin no Kai Party, said on social media.
“I hope that President Biden will solve the problem in New York before he says things like this. Depending on the presidential election, there could be a 180-degree change in policy, and there is no need for Japan to follow suit,” she added.
Another lawmaker, Sohei Kamiya, leader of the right-wing populist Sansei Party, added, “It’s not that we’re xenophobic, we are being cautious after seeing your failures. You are meddling too much in our internal affairs.”
In India, according to the Associated Press, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar argued, “I haven’t seen such an open, pluralistic, and diverse society anywhere in the world. We are actually not just not xenophobic, we are the most open, most pluralistic and in many ways the most understanding society in the world.”
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Jaishankar also mocked Biden’s assessment of the strength of the U.S. economy, pointing out that India’s yearly GDP growth is 7% while the U.S. recorded 2.5% last year.
“You check some other countries’ growth rate, you will find an answer,” Jaishankar said.
Meanwhile, Fortune magazine, citing a recent assessment by CItibank, reported on Sunday that the American economy was veering toward a “hard landing,” one that cannot be fended off by additional interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Additionally, Business Insider last week cited comments by Danielle DiMartino Booth, the chief strategist of QI Research, who said the U.S. was already in an economic downturn and was bound for a recession unless the Biden administration cut spending and the mounting national debt.
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