'US has seen evidence of China attempting to influence US election, it's totally unacceptable': Antony Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the US has seen evidence of China attempting to interfere in US election. (Photo: Reuters)

The United States has seen evidence of China attempting to influence and interfere with the US presidential election, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The US presidential election will be held in November where Joe Biden, the sitting president and the Democratic Party’s nominee, is set to have rematch with former President Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

In an interview with CNN, Blinken said that there are concerns that China and other countries can take advantage of divisions within the United States and influence the presidential campaigns.

Blinken’s remarks came as he wrapped a three-day visit to China during which he met top Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Public Safety Minister Wang Xiaohong. This was his second trip to China in a year.

‘We’re looking at Chinese interference very carefully, it’s totally unacceptable’

Blinken said the Biden administration is looking into the Chinese attempts at interfering in US presidential election “very carefully” and it is “totally unacceptable”.

“We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence and arguably interfere, and we want to make sure that that’s cut off as quickly as possible…Any interference by China in our election is something that we’re looking very carefully at and is totally unacceptable to us, so I wanted to make sure that they heard that message again,” said Blinken in an interview with CNN’s Kylie Atwood.

This is not the first time that the Biden administration has raised the issue of such suspected interference with Beijing. In a meeting with Xi last year, Biden had directly asked Xi to not interfere in the 2024 US presidential election and Xi at the time had pledged that there would not be any such Chinese interference, according to reports.

During his visit to China, Blinken also discussed issues like the Chinese trade with Russia that the US believes supports the Russian war against Ukraine. He also discussed smuggling of drugs with Public Safety Minister Wang Xiaohong amid the ongoing fentanyl epidemic in the US.

Blinken acknowledged that even though they are working to cooperate, there are differences between the two sides.

“We are (now) focused on areas where we’re working to cooperate, but also we’re being very forthright about our differences and that’s important if we’re going to avoid the competition we’re in turning into conflict,” said Blinken in the interview.

China has been accused of election interference for years

China along with other strategic rivals like Russia and North Korea have long been accused of interference in American elections.

Earlier this month, Microsoft warned that China will use artificial intelligence (AI) to disrupt elections in the United States, India, and South Korea in 2024.

For years, China has been accused of running influence operations in countries like the US and Canada. These activities are mainly aimed at trying to prevent candidates Beijing perceives as anti-China from winning and peddling a favourable view of China among the target audience.

In December 2023, the US government released an intelligence assessment that said China tried to shape the result of specific contests in the 2022 midterm elections, according to NBC News.

The report said that “China tacitly approved efforts to try to influence a handful of midterm races involving members of both US political parties” with the idea to try to prevent certain candidates perceived as anti-China from winning and support certain candidates perceived to be pro-China.