US has evidence of China's interference in upcoming US presidential elections
Photo: AP
United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the United States has evidence that China tried to influence the preparation of the American presidential election that will be held this year.
CNN reports this, Rubryka writes, referring to Ukrinform.
During his three-day visit to China, Blinken repeated President Joe Biden's call to Chinese President Xi Jinping not to interfere in the upcoming elections. According to CNN, Xi Jinping then made a promise but did not keep it.
"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.
He added that there are suspicions not only about China but also about other countries, but the Secretary of State did not reveal the details.
"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.
Beijing has repeatedly stated that it does not interfere in the US elections based on its principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
Blinken said that the United States and China are currently "very forthright" about their differences because the United States wants to "avoid competition that turns into conflict."
The secretary of state added that he used the meeting with Xi to express the Biden administration's concerns about China's support for Russia and to emphasize that the US will take further action if such support continues.
"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). We're looking to them to act, and … if they don't, we will," Blinken said, adding that he had raised the issue with both Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Xi.
He also reported that the Chinese colleagues did not recognize the role of these goods in the war in Ukraine. Instead, they characterized it as trade with Russia and said Moscow's success did not depend on China, Blinken added.
China has long maintained its neutrality in Russia's war against Ukraine and has continued to present itself as a potential peace mediator, even though Beijing has strengthened its economic, strategic, and diplomatic ties with Russia since the start of the full-scale war, the media resource writes.
