China attempting to influence upcoming US elections, says Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US has seen evidence of Chinese attempts to “influence and arguably interfere” with the upcoming US elections, despite an earlier commitment from leader Xi Jinping not to do so.

Blinken made the comments to CNN’s Kylie Atwood in an interview Friday at the close of a three-day to trip to China, where the top American diplomat spent hours meeting with top Chinese officials including Xi, as the two countries navigated a raft of contentious issues from US tech controls to Beijing’s support for Moscow.

Blinken said he repeated a message President Joe Biden gave to Xi during their summit in San Francisco last November not to interfere in the 2024 US presidential elections. Then, Xi had pledged that that China would not do so, according to CNN reporting.

“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,” Blinken said when asked whether China was violating Xi’s commitment to Biden so far.

“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,” Blinken said, adding there was concern about China and other countries playing on existing social divisions in the US in influence campaigns.

Beijing has repeatedly said it does not interfere in US elections, based on its principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. China or actors that are believed to be affiliated with Beijing have been accused of political interference in other countries, such as Canada.

Blinken’s trip — his second to the country in less than a year — is the latest in a string of high-level engagements that culminated in the Biden-Xi summit late last year and that have seen the two countries start to expand what had been severely diminished bilateral communications.

“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,” Blinken told CNN.

Blinken also said he used his meeting to raise the Biden administration’s concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base – and to stress that further action would be taken by the US on top of existing sanctions on more than 100 Chinese entities and individuals if such support continues.

The US believes that Chinese support is enabling Russia to ramp up production of tanks, munitions and armored vehicles – and to continue its onslaught on Ukraine.

A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system drives during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2023.

“What we said to China is this – we’re going to take actions we already have, and if it doesn’t stop, we’re going to have to take more action, and you can anticipate as well, that other countries will (too),” Blinken said, adding that he raised the issue to both Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Xi. “We’re looking to them to act, and … if they don’t, we will.”

He also said that Chinese counterparts had not acknowledged the role of these goods in the war in Ukraine. Instead, they characterized this as trade with Russia and said Moscow’s success didn’t depend on China, Blinken added.

Beijing has previously slammed the US as making “groundless accusations” over “normal trade and economic exchanges” between China and Russia.

China has long contended that it maintains neutrality in the Ukraine war and has continued to present itself as a potential peace broker in the conflict, even as it has strengthened its economic, strategic and diplomatic ties with Russia since the war began.