WASHINGTON: Chinese president has told US counterparts that they would not interfere in November’s presidential election in the USA, CNN reported on Wednesday.
President Xi Jinping, while meeting with President Joe Biden, said China would stay out of the 2024 polls, which is expected to pit Joe Biden against former US President Donald Trump.
This past weekend, Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Minister, gave the same assurances to national security adviser Jake Sullivan, CNN reported based on two different sources.
A source having knowledge of the matter said possible election interference by China has come up repeatedly at recent senior-level meetings between the two countries.
President Biden and China’s Xi met for the first time in a year when they attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco.
President Biden raised the issue of potential Chinese interference in the coming election. Xi, in a brief exchange, said China would not interfere in the election, CNN reported.
US intelligence reports have said Cuban, Iranian and Chinese agents have been active in trying to influence the November’s US elections.
A US government report in December found that hackers linked to Russia and China targeted some election systems during the 2022 midterms, but found no evidence that foreign governments had compromised the vote.
The New York Times reported in December that China had begun experimenting with artificial intelligence in its influence campaigns. New technologies are making it easier for foreign countries to imitate native English speakers and more quickly generate news expanding existing divisions, the Times reports.
According to US intelligence officials, Russia has traditionally been more aggressive than China in trying to influence US elections.
However, as of 2020, senior Chinese officials have issued broad directives for workers to “intensify efforts to influence US policy and public opinion in China’s favour,” and senior Chinese officials have targeted “increasing American societal divisions,” according to a declassified US intelligence assessment. in December.
A senior National Security Agency official told reporters last week that the agency has seen no sign of any notable new foreign influence operations aimed at the 2024 election.
Still, officials are bracing for the possibility that Russia, Iran, China and other foreign actors will try to influence voters.
