China’s political interference is in many ways worse than President Trump asserts, but the true nature and scale of Beijing’s activities may be obscured by his efforts to use it for partisan gain. Whatever Trump’s motives in accusing China of meddling in the 2020 presidential election – “the largest compromise of election data in history,” as he put it – Beijing has undoubtedly become more aggressive in its political interference. Beijing has adopted Russian-style disinformation operations in its attempts to undermine its western rivals, and the United States in particular.
The pandemic was a turning point. Until then, Chinese propaganda had been largely defensive – and quite clunky
In a primetime television address last night, Trump accused Beijing of illicitly acquiring 220 million US voter files, including names, addresses, phone numbers and political party preferences, and asserted that the electoral system was “dangerously expose[d] … to hacking, exploitation and interference.” He said voter data in 18 states was “bought, stolen or hacked by China” and claimed “those responsible for sounding the alarm” had failed to disclose this to Congress or government officials.
Trump has long obsessed about his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden and Beijing joins the long list of those he believes conspired to rob him of the presidency through “catastrophic” election fraud. The White House also published reams of newly-declassified material, though this did not appear to support his assertions.
