US President Donald Trump has used a prime-time speech to accuse China of trying to influence the 2020 election and stop him from winning the presidency.
The claim goes against a joint report by US intelligence agencies, which found Russia and Iran ran influence campaigns during the 2020 election cycle, but China decided not to.
The presidential address, which also raised a range of other complaints with US voting systems, represents the latest in Mr Trump’s years-long series of attempts to undermine confidence in American elections.
Mr Trump has never accepted the result of the 2020 election, claiming it was “rigged” in Joe Biden’s favour. But dozens of audits, investigations and court rulings have rejected that claim and upheld Mr Biden’s win.
Mr Trump said he would declassify documents to support his latest allegations. He said “deep state” officials had covered up the Chinese operation, and they would now be investigated and charged.
Mr Trump also alleged that:
- China stole 220 million US voter files — including names, addresses, phone numbers and party preferences — in the “largest compromise of election data in history”
- Vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines meant they were “extremely exposed to attack” and Americans had been “blatantly lied to” about their security
- A “stunning investigation” had found about 278,000 non-citizens had registered to vote, but the “real number was much higher” because some states had blocked scrutiny of voter roles
“These disclosures reveal an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it,” Mr Trump said.
Election authorities, courts and intelligence agencies have previously dismissed dozens of voter fraud claims. (ABC News: Brad Ryan)
For weeks Mr Trump has been trying to convince Congress to pass legislation that would ban mail-in voting and force voters to show citizenship documents, such as birth certificates or passports. He used the speech to renew those efforts.
Opponents argue the legislation, known as the SAVE America Act, would disenfranchise millions of voters. It has failed to get through the Senate because it lacks bipartisan support.
Many of the issues raised by Mr Trump have been investigated in the past, after he and his allies pushed conspiracy theories to persuade Americans the 2020 election was corrupted.
In 2021, US intelligence agencies released a joint report that concluded China “considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome” of the 2020 election. The conclusion was reached with “high confidence”.
“China sought stability in its relationship with the United States and did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk blowback if caught,” the report said.
The report also said there were “no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process”. But it said Russia had run influence operations to support Mr Trump, while Iran ran a covert campaign to undercut him.
Basic voter data, including the details Mr Trump accused China of stealing, are publicly available in the US. It is not clear what private information was allegedly obtained.
