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Trump’s China election claim
United States President Donald Trump renewed claims that China helped “manipulate” the 2020 elections, and he said newly declassified intelligence material exposed foreign interference despite intelligence assessments from the US government that stated the opposite.
In a primetime address on Thursday, Trump claimed that “over a period of years starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history,” and he said it resulted in China’s “illicit acquisition of 220 million US voter files.”
The BBC reported that it reviewed the documents and found “no bombshell revelations and no evidence that interference or fraud actually changed the outcome of previous elections,” including the 2020 contest Trump lost.
The BBC also said Trump framed the released files as “shocking vulnerabilities,” standing in the East Room where Barack Obama announced the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011.
In Beijing, a Chinese embassy spokesperson rejected the premise, saying, “China has all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in others’ internal affairs,” and that “China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the US.”
Rebuttals and declassified files
The BBC said the released documents provide support for claims that China took steps to acquire voter data and explored ways to influence public opinion, but it described this as “well short of the kind of election tampering that Trump at times implied.”
DW’s fact check said US intelligence community assessments found that there were “no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US election,” and it added that “We assess that China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome.”
DW also addressed Trump’s Michigan voter-fraud narrative, quoting Trump’s claim that “the FBI agents working on the case believe that crimes were committed,” and it said DW found that the FBI found some canvassers’ registrations were fraudulent but that none of the registrations actually led to people being registered to vote or casting a ballot.
Euronews reported that China urged the United States to stop “baseless accusations” and quoted Lin Jian saying, “We have no interest in meddling in American elections and we have never done so.”
Forbes reported that Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-N.Y., told C-SPAN that Trump’s speech was “the rantings of a pathetic, unserious person,” and that “there is no basis in fact to almost anything he said.”
Midterms, visas, and fallout
Trump’s renewed election-security push came as he sought to push Congress to pass a restrictive voter identification law, the SAVE America Act, which the Al Jazeera report said would impose strict ID requirements on US voters and allow greater federal intervention in elections.
“Declassified documents touted by Trump say election systems 'would be difficult to manipulate' Audits and paper trails "would uncover such efforts," the documents said”
Al Jazeera said the claims have fed one of the country’s most serious political crises, when Trump’s supporters led a violent attack on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, in the final days of his first term.
Euronews said China’s response also touched on Trump’s remarks and the scheduled visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September, with a spokesperson urging the United States to stop making China an issue in its elections.
In Beijing, Lin Jian also linked the dispute to visa rules, urging the United States to stop “baseless accusations” and saying the allegations were “entirely fabricated and aim to demonize China,” while the Madrid Actual report said US restrictions would limit journalists to 240 days and China to 90 days.
The Madrid Actual report said China asked the United States to reflect on its own conduct and stop “acusaciones sin base alguna,” and it added that China said it would reserve the right to adopt “contramedidas recíprocas” in response to the visa restrictions.
