The “fetish” among America’s working and middle class to reshore millions of manufacturing jobs back to the United States from overseas is racist, a globalist economist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) suggests.

For decades, millions of Americans in manufacturing and supporting industries have lost their jobs to globalization and outsourcing. Every year, recent figures have shown that more than 100,000 Americans lose their jobs as a result of U.S. free trade policy, impacting working and middle-class American communities in all 50 states and from all racial backgrounds.

During an event, hosted by the economic globalist-libertarian CATO Institute, PIIE President Adam Posen suggested that opposition to outsourcing and support for reshoring America’s manufacturing from overseas is racist.

“The fetish for manufacturing is part of the general fetish for keeping white males with low education outside the cities in the powerful positions they’re in in the U.S.,” Posen said.

“That is really what’s going on here because when you look at the cost of … trade and job displacement and communities … when I look at the so-called costs of the ‘China shock’ or the costs of the decline in manufacturing, I always think ‘Compared to what?'” he continued.

“I can’t think of a better recipe for inducing racial tension than having D.C. elites financed by Wall Street pushing offshoring and then saying that anyone who opposes having their community and livelihood destroyed is racist,” economist Matt Stoller wrote in response to Posen’s claims.

As it turns out, Posen’s PIIE has deep financial ties to China, the Washington Free Beacon reported back in 2020:

PIIE has benefited from its ties with the Chinese elite, receiving nearly $400,000 between 2010 and 2018 from Huawei, a Chinese tech giant indicted by the federal government, according to PIIE president Adam Posen. The think tank has also received hundreds of thousands of dollars from an anti-democratic Hong Kong billionaire and a nonprofit widely considered a front group for the Chinese government’s influence-peddling operations.
[Emphasis added]

Groups and individuals linked to the regime have poured millions of dollars into Washington, D.C., in an effort to shape policy. [Sen. Josh] Hawley said PIIE’s partnership is just another example of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) finding a receptive audience among the American elite, whether it be in D.C. think tanks or corporate boardrooms. [Emphasis added]

…

PIIE has cultivated close ties with Chinese elites, inviting senior officials to speak at its annual symposia cohosted with the China Finance 40 Forum (CF40)—a state-backed think tank headed by several senior CCP officials. The symposium has functioned as a highly visible platform for senior officials to not only criticize the Trump administration’s trade policy, but also tout the Belt and Road Initiative—the controversial program accused of being a conduit for Chinese influence in developing countries. Past panelists have included China’s vice minister of finance and the vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body for the regime. [Emphasis added]

Aside from PIIE’s vested financial interest in keeping manufacturing in China, Posen’s claim that opponents of outsourcing American jobs are rooted in racism does not jive with years of research that shows globalization has hit white and black working-class communities.

A 2018 study by the Institute for Labor Economics, for example, revealed the extent to which white men and black men in the U.S. were crippled by the nation’s manufacturing collapse, which came as trade deficits racked up and free trade deals were readily implemented.

In addition, economic nationalism has brought support among nearly every demographic of Americans. A survey from January found that reshoring American manufacturing jobs from overseas was the most popular policy solution to inflation among nearly all Americans.

From 2001 to 2018, U.S. free trade with China has eliminated 3.7 million American jobs from the economy — 2.8 million of which were lost in American manufacturing. During that same period, at least 50,000 American manufacturing plants closed down.

Millions more American jobs have been lost as a result of free trade with Mexico, South Korea, and other lower-wage countries.

The total U.S. goods trade deficit in 2020 hit a record $915.8 billion. Research shows that every $1 billion in imports from a foreign country to the U.S. leads to American job losses. Meanwhile, American manufacturing remains vital to the U.S. economy, as every one manufacturing job supports an additional 7.4 American jobs in other industries.

Meanwhile, U.S. tariffs on foreign imports would create millions of American jobs. The latest research shows that tariffs on almost all foreign imports to the U.S. economy would create about 10 million American jobs while boosting domestic output by 20 percent.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.