US President Donald Trump delivered the first speech in which he accused China of meddling in the 2020 election and alleged “alarming risks” to US voting systems.
Trump, who was speaking at the White House on Thursday, has repeated unsubstantiated allegations about voter fraud and foreign interference in the 2020 election in which he lost to Joe Biden.
In an hour-long speech, delivered three months before the midterm elections, he said he had declassified hundreds of intelligence files supporting his allegations that Beijing had tried to sway the election in Biden’s favor.
The US intelligence community has previously concluded that China did not interfere in the 2020 election.
Trump spoke in front of many members of his executive team during his speech, but reporters were not able to ask the president questions.
In his remarks, he accused China of “illegal acquisition” of 220 million voter files including personal information.
Trump said voter information in 18 states was “bought, stolen or hacked by China” and blamed “those guilty of blowing the whistle” for not disclosing the findings to federal officials or Congress.
Trump has presented no evidence that China used the information it allegedly collected to alter voting systems or influence the results of the election.
In response to his speech, the Chinese Ambassador to Washington told Reuters that Beijing “has never and will never interfere in the presidential election”. The BBC has contacted China’s foreign ministry for comment.
Democrats, meanwhile, accused Trump of trying to sow doubts about the safety of the upcoming November sessions that will decide control of Congress for the rest of his presidency.
“Let’s be clear – in America, voters choose their leaders, not the other way around,” Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer tweeted after the speech.
“Democrats will fight like hell to ensure that every American voter can vote freely, without being blocked or interfered with by Donald Trump,” he added.
The president’s comments contradict previous US intelligence research. A 2021 report by the US National Intelligence Council said it was “highly optimistic” that China did not interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
“We assess that China did not include efforts to interfere and was investigated but did not use efforts aimed at changing the outcome of the US presidential election,” the report said.
It said this may be because China “did not view any election result as sufficiently beneficial for China to risk a backlash if caught”.
Trump delivered the speech at the White House after the release of a new poll from the Washington Post-Ipsos, which showed that his approval rating has fallen to 37% and many voters are pessimistic about the cost of living and the ongoing war with Iran.
Elsewhere in the speech, the president pointed out that US voting machines are “extremely exposed” to interference by foreign adversaries, including Russia, China and Iran.
The shortcomings of the US election infrastructure are well documented. It was also discussed after the 2016 election, which Trump won, after the US intelligence community found that Russia was involved in an election interference campaign that included hacking, social media influence and campaign financing.
During his speech, Trump also alleged that a federal investigation by Michigan law enforcement had uncovered a voter registration fraud scheme run by a Democratic affiliate, but was blocked by the FBI from taking action before the statute of limitations expired.
“It was pay, play and cheating,” he said, although he did not present evidence that votes were changed or tables were changed or voting machines were hacked.
Separately, Trump said the Department of Homeland Security has identified 278,000 non-citizens who are registered to vote. He did not say whether any of these people voted or influenced the election results.
At the end of his speech, Trump also called for the passage of the SAVE America Act, which bans most mail-in voting, requires proof of citizenship of voter registration and photo ID to vote.
That legislation has been stalled in the Senate for months.
