US President Donald Trump declassified documents alleging Chinese interference in US elections.
He renewed his false claims about the 2020 election, and called for stricter voting laws ahead of the November midterms.
Democrats dismissed Trump's claims as baseless, China denied interfering in US elections.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday declassified a series of documents that he claimed showed Chinese interference in US elections, reviving his long-standing allegations about election security despite a 2021 US intelligence assessment finding no evidence that Beijing altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
In an address that went on for 25-minutes, Trump sought to make election security a central issue ahead of November's midterm elections, where Republicans are defending narrow majorities in Congress.
He also renewed his call for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would introduce stricter voter identification and proof-of-citizenship requirements while significantly restricting mail-in voting. The legislation has repeatedly passed the Republican-controlled House but remains stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition.
During the speech, Trump claimed the declassified material exposed what he termed as shocking vulnerabilities in the election infrastructure. He continued to allege that China had illicitly acquired 220 million US voter files containing names, addresses and other personal data.
"Over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history," Trump said.
He reiterated his claims, even though a 2021 unclassified US intelligence assessment conducted under then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe found no indication that any foreign actor attempted to alter "any technical aspect" of the 2020 election, including voter registration systems, ballots, vote tabulation or election results.
The report did in fact conclude that China had, since at least 2008, collected publicly available information on U.S. voters, political parties, candidates and public opinion to better understand and predict election outcomes.
Reuters reported that several of the newly declassified documents also appeared to undercut Trump's claims. One CIA document focused on Venezuela's election rather than the United States. Another assessed that "We assess that vote tabulation systems would be difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to compromise election results."
A third CIA assessment stated that while Beijing targeted both political campaigns for intelligence gathering, it "does not currently intend to covertly interfere to try to sway the outcome of the election," although it left open the possibility that China could reconsider.
The claims has left some confusion since the United States and China have attempted to mend their relationship, with Trump visiting China in May. Both leaders had complimented each other's achievements and their countries' legacies.
Responding before the speech, Liu Chang, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said: "China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S."
In the Thursday address, Trump also claimed his administration had identified more than 2,75,000 non-citizens registered to vote across four states, though he did not provide evidence showing how many, if any, had actually cast ballots.
Democrats sharply rejected Trump's allegations. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner, as per Reuters, said: "Trump's shocking 'bombshells' about China are totally bogus. The fact is our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that China did not even try to change a single vote in the 2020 election."
Trump's speech comes amid opinion polls showing his approval ratings under pressure amid the Iran conflict and rising energy prices.
Trump also criticised the two broadcasters who refused to run his speech on live TV, calling out ABC and NBC by name. CNN too did not broadcast Trump's address. "In a rare move NBC and ABC fake news have both said they would not cover this speech," he said, adding, "Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses."
