China rejects Trump’s claims of interference in US elections

Beijing on Friday rejected claims by US President Donald Trump that China interfered in the US elections.

“The US allegations have no factual ground and are aimed at vilifying China,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing.

Trump alleged Friday that starting during the 2020 election cycle, China acquired 220 million US voter files, calling this the "largest compromise of election data in history."

In a primetime address to the nation, Trump announced the declassification of intelligence that he said showed widespread foreign interference and serious vulnerabilities in US election systems.

However, Lin said similar accusations “have long been proved to be unfounded.”

“China adheres to the principal of non-intervention in other states’ internal affairs. China has no interest in interfering in the US elections and has never done so,” he said.

By contrast, Lin questioned “who has wantonly interfered in other countries’ internal affairs, conducted indiscriminate surveillance of governments, businesses and general public worldwide over a long period of time and compromised citizens’ data of other countries at a large scale.”

The US goes to mid-term polls later this year in November.

Citing a CIA report, Trump had said that in mid-2018, during his first term in office, the policy of the Chinese Communist Party was to "leverage all domestic and foreign elements" that were opposed to him in an effort to reduce the votes he would get in the 2020 election, make him resign, or prevent his reelection.