The latest report sheds more light on communist China’s long game to infiltrate U.S. politics at every level.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attempted to meddle in the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, aiming to undermine certain candidates viewed as “anti-China” and to promote others deemed to be “pro-China,” according to a new report from the U.S. intelligence community.
“China tacitly approved efforts to try to influence a handful of midterm races involving members of both U.S. political parties,” the intelligence agencies said in their assessment, published by the National Intelligence Council on Dec. 18, emphasizing that they came to such a conclusion with “high confidence.”
The report, with substantial portions redacted, didn’t say which midterm races the CCP had targeted. In one case, China “covertly [denigrated]” an unnamed Senate candidate online using “inauthentic accounts.” The report was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
The latest report sheds more light on communist China’s long game to infiltrate U.S. politics at every level. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in 2022 that Beijing’s desire to influence U.S. politics rested on its quest to achieve economic and political domination.
Since 2020, senior CCP leaders have issued “broad directives to intensify efforts” to influence U.S. policies and public opinion in China’s favor, according to the report.
“We assess that these directives gave PRC influence actors more freedom to operate ahead of the midterms than [ahead of] the presidential election in 2020, probably because PRC officials believed that Beijing was under less scrutiny during the midterms and because they did not expect the current Administration to retaliate as severely as they feared in 2020,” the report reads, referring to China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.
The CCP had also repeatedly ordered its officials to focus their influence operations on Congress, convinced that the U.S. legislative branch “is a locus of anti-China activity.”
“In 2021, Beijing identified specific members of Congress to punish for anti-China views and to reward for their perceived support for China,” the report reads.
