Washington: US President Donald Trump has renewed his claims of Chinese election interference after releasing declassified documents that he says reveal security gaps in the country’s electoral system.
However, a previous US intelligence assessment found no evidence that China influenced the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
In a 25-minute prime-time address on Thursday, Trump said the documents exposed what he called “shocking vulnerabilities” in US election infrastructure and urged Congress to approve stricter voting laws ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
Trump used the address to push Republican lawmakers to pass legislation requiring stricter voter identification and citizenship verification measures.
The proposed bill has faced strong opposition from Democrats and remains stalled in the Senate.
Trump claimed the declassified material showed that China had illegally obtained data from around 220 million US voter records, including names, addresses and other information.
A declassified 2021 US intelligence assessment found no evidence that any foreign actor, including China, attempted to change voter registrations, ballots, vote counts or the final results of the 2020 election.
The report stated that China had collected information related to US voters, political parties, candidates and government officials over several years, but did not link the activity to altering election outcomes.
Officials familiar with the matter said the voter information obtained by China was not confidential, as voter records are commonly available to political consultants, and the data could not be used to manipulate election results.
Some White House officials had reportedly expressed concerns that releasing the information could create a misleading impression about China’s role in US elections.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment on Trump’s remarks, but Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Chang denied the allegations, saying Beijing has never interfered and will never interfere in US presidential elections.
The latest remarks are expected to keep election security at the centre of political debate as the United States approaches the midterm elections.
