China's attempt to influence 2018 election

Bill Gertz:
China's communist government is conducting overt and covert influence operations aimed at swaying the upcoming November elections in a bid to undermine President Trump, the president disclosed on Wednesday.

The election interference includes targeting American farmers with propaganda and anti-Trump political activities in states carried by Trump in the 2016 election.

"Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election coming up in November against my administration," Trump said during a session of the U.N. Security Council in New York.

"They do not want me, or us, to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade. And we are winning on trade. We are winning at every level. We don't want them to meddle or interfere in our upcoming election."

The unprecedented disclosure of Chinese election interference comes as the United States and China are locked in a trade war.

The Chinese political interference follows the Russian hack-and-release intelligence operation to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

The Trump administration this month imposed $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods in a bid to counter Chinese technology theft and unfair trade practices. China retaliated by imposing $60 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods.

Trump was asked later during a press conference about evidence of Chinese election meddling and said cryptically: "We have evidence, we have evidence—it'll come out."

China has "actually admitted that they're going after farmers," he said.

The president who frequently has said Chinese president Xi Jinping is a friend appeared to change that view. "I like China and I like President Xi a lot. I think he's a friend of mine, he may not be a friend of mine anymore," Trump said.

Asked how he could call Xi a friend while China is meddling in U.S. elections, Trump said: "Maybe he's not anymore."
...
Compared with Russian influence operations, the Chinese operations are different and oriented to propaganda like the newspaper insert and generating negative cable television coverage highlighting how farmers are being hurt, Trump said.

A senior administration official who briefed reporters on the interference by China said Beijing is using a large-scale program of "united front" Communist Party activities involving political, economic, commercial, military, and informational tools.

"The activities have reached an unacceptable level," the official said.

The official said China is "actively interfering in our political system" by hurting farmers and engaging in activities in states and districts that voted for the president "because he stood up to the ways that China has taken advantage of our country economically."
...
The left is trying to ignore this influence operation and even suggested that Trump made the charges "without evidence."  I suspect teh reason why is that the media hates Trump and his voters and wants his supporters to do the same thing China wants them to do.  They are on China's side in the trade war with Trump.

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