China poses a greater national security challenge to the United States than any other country, including when it comes to possible election interference, according to Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.
With the Nov. 3 presidential election fast approaching, a senior U.S. counterintelligence official warned earlier this month that Russia is actively trying to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. That same statement also said China “prefers” President Trump not win reelection and that Beijing views him as being more “unpredictable.” That counterintelligence official said China is “expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020” but seemed to describe China’s efforts as being mostly rhetorical in nature.
But in a statement given to the Washington Examiner, Ratcliffe, a former Texas Republican congressman who has overseen the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies since May, amplified the sense of urgency felt by the Trump administration to counter the broad reach of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to disrupt an unfavorable status quo.
“China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation — economically, militarily and technologically,” Ratcliffe said. “That includes threats of election influence and interference.”
He said China is “concerned” that Trump being reelected would “lead to a continuation of policies that they perceive to be ‘anti-China.'” Ratcliffe did not mention how Biden, a former vice president, is viewed in Beijing as an alternative U.S. leader.
In the Democratic Party platform for 2020, there is some talk about standing up to China on issues such as the economy, intellectual property, and human rights. Democrats also make the case that Trump had perpetrated a “trade war” with China that he never planned on winning.
Trump has aggressively assigned blame to China for the coronavirus health crisis, as the outbreak has been traced back to the Chinese city of Wuhan and the Chinese government has been criticized for covering up the outbreak early in the pandemic. The president also pointed to the early August warning by the U.S. intelligence community, arguing that the Chinese “own” Biden, and if he is elected, “China will own our country.”
Beyond just talk, the Trump administration has ramped up penalties against China in recent months, including sanctions against Chinese Communist Party leaders in Hong Kong and against Chinese officials complicit in alleged human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslims and other religious and ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region of western China. Trump also signed executive orders that could effectively ban Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat from operating in the U.S.
The statement released by National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director Bill Evanina in early August, which mentioned Beijing’s preference for Trump to lose the 2020 election, discussed what considerations are being taken by China as the U.S. ratchets up the pressure.
“Although China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric over the past few months has grown increasingly critical of the current administration’s COVID-19 response, closure of China’s Houston Consulate, and actions on other issues. For example, it has harshly criticized the administration’s statements and actions on Hong Kong, TikTok, the legal status of the South China Sea, and China’s efforts to dominate the 5G market,” Evanina said.
The Chinese Communist Party “recognizes that all of these efforts” could affect the presidential election, Evanina added.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is not sitting idly by.
Ratcliffe said he is “committing the IC resources needed to fully understand the threat posed by China and provide U.S. policymakers with the best intelligence to counter China’s broad and deep malign activities” and noted that “we’ve briefed hundreds of members of Congress to raise our concerns about China and its increased efforts to impact the U.S. policy climate in its favor.”
He also stressed that “free and fair elections are a bedrock of American democracy, and the IC remains vigilant against the various activities by China, as well as other threat countries and actors, which seek to affect” the U.S. election process.
“IC leaders pledged to continue to update the American public and other key stakeholders on the evolving election threat landscape. The IC is significantly ahead of where it was in 2016 in terms of providing updates to the American people on election threats, including China,” an ODNI spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “The IC supports DHS and FBI in their considerable efforts to support state and local officials in protecting election infrastructure.”
Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee did not respond to a request for comment about Ratcliffe’s assessment, nor did Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. The Republicans on the panel, led by California Rep. Devin Nunes, did respond.
“HPSCI Republicans keep close watch on all malign actors that pose threats to U.S. security,” Jack Langer, spokesman for HPSCI Republicans, told the Washington Examiner. “But we’ve had a years-long special focus on China, which as DNI Ratcliffe correctly noted, poses immediate and pressing threats, above and beyond those posed by other nations, to a wide range of U.S. security concerns.”
Evanina’s early August statement also stressed that, like in 2016, Moscow is making moves to interfere in the 2020 presidential contest.
“We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment.’ This is consistent with Moscow’s public criticism of him when he was vice president for his role in the Obama administration’s policies on Ukraine and its support for the anti-Putin opposition inside Russia,” Evanina also said. “For example, pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.”
Robert Mueller’s special counsel report, released in April 2019, said Russians interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” but “did not establish” any criminal collusion between any Russians and anyone in Trump’s orbit. The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report last week detailing the “counterintelligence threat” posed by Russian meddling in the last presidential race.
Evanina also said Iran “seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections.” He said Tehran’s efforts “probably will focus on online influence such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content.”
Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA, said Tuesday that U.S. efforts disrupting Russian meddling attempts in the 2018 midterms helped prepare the U.S. to defend against a range of cyberinterference efforts even more effectively during 2020.
