“China wants a different American president,” Pence will say.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday plans to accuse China of trying to undermine President Donald Trump as the administration deploys tough new rhetoric over Chinese trade, economic, and foreign policies.
In a speech to the Hudson Institute, Pence will say China is using its power in “more proactive and coercive ways to interfere in the domestic policies and politics of the United States.”
“China wants a different American president,” Pence will say, according to excerpts of prepared remarks from his office.
Pence’s speech comes a week after the Republican president accused China during a meeting of the U. N. Security Council of interfering in American elections to help his Democratic rivals.
“Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election,” Trump said. “They do not want me, or us, to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade.” As proof, Trump later referenced a paid advertising insert in The Des Moines Register by Chinese government-affiliated entities.
Pence is set to charge that China is targeting “industries and states that would play an important role in the 2018 election” as it responds to Trump’s protectionist trade tariffs on China. “By one estimate, more than 80 percent of U. S. counties targeted by China voted for President Trump in 2016; now China wants to turn these voters against our administration,” Pence will say.
U. S. intelligence agencies assess that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to boost Trump over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton through hacking and releasing sensitive documents and social media manipulation.
