00:00Welcome back. U.S. President Donald Trump has accused China of interfering in the 2020 U.S. elections,
00:07citing what he describes as newly declassified intelligence.
00:11The claims contradict earlier U.S. intelligence assessments,
00:14which found no evidence that Beijing changed the result of the vote.
00:18Trump lost that election to Joe Biden.
00:21The documents cover five major areas of concern.
00:25First, they show that over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle,
00:32the People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history,
00:40resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files.
00:49That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences,
00:54and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote
00:59and engage in other nefarious activities, which is exactly what was happening.
01:05He also claimed members of the U.S. intelligence community deliberately suppressed information
01:10about China's alleged efforts to interfere in the elections.
01:14A 2021 U.S. intelligence assessment led by John Ratcliffe, who now serves as CIA director under Trump,
01:21found no evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election.
01:25The allegations come just months before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the United States in September.
01:32China rejected Trump's latest claims.
01:35A spokesperson for its embassy in Washington said,
01:38Beijing has always followed a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
01:44The remarks come as Trump continues to make election security
01:47a key issue ahead of November's midterm elections.
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