Trump Says China, Russia, Iran and North Korea Threaten US Elections

President Donald Trump claimed on July 16 that China stole data on 220 million US voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election and attempted to produce illegal ballots for then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden. The remarks are set to revive election-security debate as the November midterm elections approach.

In an address from the East Room of the White House, Trump said China carried out what he described as the largest election-data breach in history over several years beginning in the 2020 election cycle. He said the effort led to the illegal acquisition of 220 million US voter files.

He also said intelligence materials showed China had designated a separate data-exploitation unit for the project.

Trump said information obtained by the FBI in 2020 but buried by bureaucrats included allegations that Chinese activity extended to attempts to produce illegal ballots for Biden. He added that he had released related reports from the CIA and other agencies alleging that China tried to influence the results of the 2018 US midterm elections and the 2020 presidential election, while carrying out anti-Trump operations targeting American businesspeople and journalists.

Trump said dozens of CIA and National Security Agency reports on Chinese election interference were excluded from the President's Daily Brief. The information was not delivered to the president, Congress or the American public, he said.

He said he had asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Justice Department, the FBI and the CIA to investigate how and why the information was concealed, fire those involved in the cover-up and pursue criminal charges where appropriate.

Trump also said he would release an intelligence assessment saying US electronic voting and vote-counting systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks by foreign actors including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. He called it a cyber threat aimed at the heart of democracy and said America's adversaries and non-state actors have the capability to compromise US election infrastructure.

Kang Kyung-joo, Hankyung.com reporter qurasoha@hankyung.com