China stepped up election meddling in midterms and didn’t fear Biden: report

WASHINGTON – Beijing increased the intensity of its election interference operations last year, likely due to President Biden’s perceived weakness and the belief that the activity would attract less attention in a non-presidential year, according to a newly declassified intelligence report.

The 21-page document compiled by the National Intelligence Council and declassified last week by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, concluded that Chinese Communist Party leaders “tacitly approved” the influence campaign, raising fears that the main rival of the United States is preparing an even greater influence campaign. aggressive interference pressure in 2024.

According to the report, senior officials in Beijing “have issued broad directives to intensify efforts” to influence not only American public opinion but also foreign policy in favor of China since the last presidential election.

“[Chinese] “Leaders most likely view their efforts to magnify American social divisions as a response to what they believe is an intensified effort by the United States to promote democracy at the expense of China,” the authors wrote.

President Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month. fake images

The activity is underpinned by Beijing’s concern about growing anti-China sentiment in the United States and the belief that it must be countered, the report assessed.

Relations with China have frayed dramatically under the Biden administration, which has maneuvered to isolate Beijing from strategic technologies such as advanced semiconductors and shot down a Chinese spy balloon that sailed through US airspace for more than a week earlier this year. .

‘Tacit approval’

Before last year’s midterm elections, the Chinese government gave “influential actors more freedom to operate” than in previous election cycles, “probably” because it “did not expect the current administration to retaliate as severely as they feared in 2020,” according to the report.

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Xi Jinping presides over a faltering economy and a growing array of domestic problems right now. REUTERS

That direction was also partly due to the perceived lesser importance of the midterm elections, during which Chinese officials “believed Beijing was under less scrutiny.”

“Beijing almost certainly saw the US midterm elections as an opportunity to portray the US democratic model as chaotic, ineffective and unrepresentative, and frequently directed [Chinese] messages to highlight American divisions on social issues, such as abortion and gun control,” the report says.

While fewer Americans vote in the midterm elections, China has a strong interest in influencing congressional elections “because Beijing is convinced that Congress is a hotbed of anti-China activity, causing a slowdown in bilateral relationship and more aggressively threatens China’s core interests,” according to the intelligence report.

“People’s Republic of China leaders have repeatedly ordered officials to focus on Congress,” the report said, using the official acronym for the People’s Republic of China. “…In 2021, Beijing identified specific members of Congress to punish them for their anti-China views and reward them for their perceived support for Beijing.”

The report, which contained significant edits, did not publicly identify which elected officials were targeted.

Chinese leaders stopped short of authorizing a “comprehensive campaign” to influence the midterm elections in favor of one political party over another, the report said, adding that the choice had more to do with plausible deniability than with an actual preference for part of Beijing.

“Chinese officials almost certainly considered the risks of such efforts to be greater than the rewards because they were wary of the exposure of their influence efforts in the United States,” the report said.

Furthermore, he probably did not want to “get entangled in American politics” and came to the general conclusion that “Congress would remain an adversary of Beijing regardless of which party was in control.”

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Although officials did not find a top-down directive to meddle in the elections similar to Russia’s efforts in 2016, they believe that “a handful of midterm elections” were the target.

Relations between the United States and China have been tense in recent years. AP

how they did it

While the intelligence community assessed that China had not formally approved a large-scale campaign, officials likely took liberties to counter anti-Beijing narratives in the United States.

“People’s Republic of China intelligence officers, diplomats, and other influential actors likely viewed some election interference activities as consistent with Beijing’s ongoing orientation to counter U.S. politicians seen as anti-China and support others seen as pro-China.” “says the report.

“A large volume of [influence activity] actively engaged content that highlighted US political divisions and disparaged American democracy, themes that are consistent with China’s domestic guidance.”

In its efforts, China relied heavily on online influencers, including some on TikTok, currently under scrutiny in the United States for their ties to Beijing, according to the report.

“Information from August indicated that China’s English-language messaging efforts on TikTok had focused more on U.S. politicians and domestic U.S. issues such as abortion, mass shootings, and immigration,” the report said. “By contrast, PRC state media coverage of the 2020 presidential election was limited… in the overall volume of content.”

The strategy follows that of other foreign adversaries, such as Russia, who stopped publishing false articles and self-created propaganda in favor of “amplifying existing public narratives,” sowing distrust in the American democratic system and “stoking”[ing] sociopolitical divisions,” according to the report.

“This approach provides deniability as foreign actors propagate American content to attempt to exploit existing fissures,” the report says.

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Donald Trump has called Xi Jinping a “brilliant man” and boasted about his tough foreign policy toward China. fake images

Looking to the future

Skepticism about the Chinese Communist Party has become a bipartisan issue ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Both Biden and former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party front-runner, have touted their efforts to push back against Beijing.

Craig Singleton, senior China researcher at the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in a statement that Americans can expect more meddling from China as voting day approaches.

“Beijing is shifting its focus from influencing foreign audiences to blatantly interfering in its elections, and its sights are set on the 2024 US presidential race,” he said in a statement. “China’s objectives are threefold: to sow social division, dissuade Americans from voting, and present democracy as dysfunctional.”

President Biden warned China not to meddle in Taiwan’s upcoming elections. AFP via Getty Images

As the presidential election approaches, the Chinese government has shown no signs of slowing down its attempts to influence the election over the next year, Singleton said.

“China’s increasing electoral interference is consistent with its attempt to alter global norms regarding Chinese autocracy and Western democracy, that is, by consistently comparing, contrasting and misrepresenting the two competing visions in ways advantageous to China,” he said.

What’s more, China’s influence efforts will likely affect more than just the United States, particularly as Taiwan holds its presidential election in January.

Linking Taiwan to the mainland is Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top goal for his country, and Biden warned him against meddling in the Taipei election at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco last month.

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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