WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s renewed accusations that China meddled in U.S. elections could complicate his fragile truce with Chinese leader Xi Jinping just two months before a planned summit in Washington.
The U.S. president on Thursday revived his long-running complaints about voting systems and election administration as Republicans face challenging congressional elections in November. His comments focused heavily on China and included the claim, previously denied by Beijing, that the country improperly acquired data about millions of U.S. voters.
“This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare,” Trump said.
China’s Foreign Ministry said the accusations were “pure fabrication” and amounted to “a malicious smear campaign”.
Beijing has no interest in interfering with U.S. elections and has never done so, ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a regular briefing on Friday. “We urge the U.S. to take a long, hard look at itself and stop making unfounded accusations against China.”
Before the address, Liu Chang, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said: “China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.”
CAREFULLY ORCHESTRATED TRADE TRUCE
Trump, who frequently boasts of a warm personal relationship with Xi, at times sounded personally aggrieved by China’s efforts.
“The Chinese government wanted (the) U.S. president to lose the next election, and the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them,” he said.
Those comments, delivered in a rare prime-time address, marked a sharp departure from Trump’s more respectful recent comments towards Beijing, which Washington regards as its biggest international rival.
The speech could also derail the carefully constructed truce that paused last year’s trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the impact of the speech on U.S.-China ties.
After imposing triple-digit tariffs on China in 2025, Trump backed off last October amid fears that Beijing’s retaliatory block on rare-earth metal exports could hobble U.S. manufacturing. Xi hosted Trump for a lavish state visit in May, during which Trump soft-pedaled disputes over Taiwan and called Xi a “friend.”
Trump then invited Xi to visit Washington on September 24, and he is considering attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in China’s Shenzhen.
China has not yet confirmed Xi’s visit to Washington. Beijing has privately told the Trump administration that future meetings between the leaders will depend on maintaining positive relations, according to two people familiar with those conversations.
Beijing could, however, take Trump’s Thursday comments in stride.
TRUMP’S HISTORY OF ELECTION-RELATED CLAIMS
His speech was seen as calculated to serve domestic political purposes rather than to reorient policy toward China, according to a person familiar with Beijing’s initial reading of the speech.
Notably, Trump’s 25-minute remarks from the White House’s East Room did not include any call to punish Beijing. That could temper Beijing’s reaction.
