Posted on 12/24/2023 7:58:03 AM PST by bitt
WASHINGTON – Beijing increased the intensity of its election interference operations last year – most likely due to President Biden’s perceived weakness and a belief the activity would draw less attention in a non-presidential year, according to a newly declassified intelligence report.
The 21-page document compiled by the National Intelligence Council and declassified last week by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, concluded that Chinese Communist Party leadership “tacitly approved” the influence campaign, raising fears that the US’ chief rival is readying an even more aggressive interference push in 2024.
According to the report, senior Beijing officials “have issued broad directives to intensify efforts” to influence not only American public opinion, but also foreign policy in China’s favor since the last presidential election.
“[Chinese] leaders most likely see their efforts to magnify US societal divisions as a response to what they believe is an intensified US effort to promote democracy at China’s expense,” the authors wrote.
Underpinning the activity are concerns in Beijing about rising anti-China sentiment in the US and the belief that it must be countered, the report assessed.
Relations with China have frayed dramatically under the Biden administration, which has maneuvered to cut Beijing off from strategic technologies such as advanced semiconductors and shot down a Chinese spy balloon that drifted through US airspace for more than a week earlier this year.
‘Tacit approval‘ Ahead of last year’s midterms, the Chinese government gave “influence actors more freedom to operate” than in prior election cycles, “probably” because it “did not expect the current administration to retaliate as severely as they feared in 2020,” according to the report.
That direction was also partly due to the perceived lesser importance of midterm elections, during which Chinese officials “believed that Beijing was under less scrutiny.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
“China stepped up election meddling in midterms, didn’t fear Biden: report”
Not possible. Only PUTIN, PUTIN, PUTIN controls US elections...at least according to our Ukraine Cheerleaders.
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