U.S. vice president accuses China of campaign to undermine Trump
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Mike Pence escalated Washington’s pressure campaign against Beijing on Thursday by accusing China of “malign” efforts to undermine President Donald Trump ahead of next month’s congressional elections and of reckless military actions in the South China Sea.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivers a speech at the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) in Washington, U.S., August 24, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo
In what was billed as a major policy address, Pence sought to build on Trump’s speech at the United Nations last week in which he alleged that China was attempting to interfere in the pivotal Nov. 6 midterm elections. Neither Trump nor Pence provided hard evidence of Chinese meddling.
Pence’s speech at the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington marked a sharpened U.S. approach toward China that goes beyond the bitter trade war between the world’s two biggest economies and includes disputes such as cyber activities, Taiwan and freedom of the seas.
Pence alleged that China was waging a sophisticated influence campaign aimed at swaying the Nov. 6 elections against Trump’s Republican Party in retaliation for his trade policies against Beijing.
“China is meddling in America’s democracy,” Pence said, calling it a “a comprehensive and coordinated campaign to undermine support for the president, our agenda and our nation’s most cherished ideals.
He said Beijing had “mobilized covert actors, front groups, and propaganda outlets to shift Americans’ perception of Chinese policies” and was targeting its tariffs to hurt states where Trump has strong support.
The allegations have raised questions as to whether Trump and his aides are trying to deflect attention from an investigation of his campaign’s possible ties to alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and also set up China for the blame if Republicans do poorly in election. The vote will determine whether they keep control of Congress.
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS
Washington has long identified China as a major culprit in the cyber hacking of U.S. government and corporate databases but U.S. officials and independent analysts say they have not detected the kind of systematic manipulation of social media and hacking of emails that Russia is alleged to have engaged in during the 2016 election, which Trump won.
Despite that, Pence said, “As a senior career member of our intelligence community recently told me, what the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is doing across this country.”
Trump has justified his tough trade policy against Beijing with accusations that China steals U.S. intellectual property, limits access to its own market and unfairly subsidize state-owned companies. The two countries have imposed increasingly severe rounds of tariffs on each other.
“We will continue to take action until Beijing ends the theft of American intellectual property and stops the predatory practice of forced technology transfer,” Pence said.
Bloomberg Businessweek cited 17 unnamed intelligence and company sources as saying that Chinese spies had placed computer chips inside equipment used by about 30 companies, as well as multiple U.S. government agencies, which would give Beijing secret access to internal networks. Apple Inc AAPL.O and Amazon AMZN.O denied the report.
Pence also accused China of “reckless harassment” because of an incident on Sunday in which a U.S. destroyer, the Decatur, traveled within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson Reefs in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea.
He said a Chinese naval vessel came within 45 yards (meters) of the Decatur “as it conducted freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea, forcing our ship to quickly maneuver to avoid collision.
“The United States Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows and our national interests demand,” Pence said. “We will not be intimidated. We will not stand down.”
The operation was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing’s efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters, where Chinese, Japanese and some Southeast Asian navies operate.
China’s Defense Ministry said a Chinese naval ship had been sent to warn the U.S. vessel to leave and that Beijing had irrefutable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and the waters around them.
Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Bill Trott
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