At a recent campaign event, President Joe Biden described key U.S. ally Japan and partner India as “xenophobic” nations and equated them to Russia and China.
Biden appeared to make the comment off the cuff at a fundraising event, at which he claimed that the American economy was thriving and that that was due to immigration. The president said:
Why? Because we welcome immigrants. 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.
Days later, both Japan and India rejected Biden’s description of them as “xenophobic.”
A Japanese government official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that Biden’s statements were unfortunate and not based on an accurate understanding of Japanese…
