U.S. Intel Report Reveals Conflicting Opinions on Whether China Tried to Influence 2020 Election

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A report declassified by the intelligence community on Tuesday revealed officials took conflicting positions on whether China sought to influence the 2020 election.

The report, dated March 10 but made public on Tuesday, confirmed assessments issued last year that countries including Russia and China sought to influence public opinion in the run-up to the election. But it mostly backtracked on another key pronouncement that China “prefer” former President Donald Trump lose, saying instead that China “considered but did not deploy influence efforts.”

“China sought stability in its relationship with the United States, [and] did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling, and assessed its traditional influence tools — primarily targeted economic measures and lobbying — would be sufficient to meet its goal of shaping U.S. China policy regardless of the winner,” the report said.

At the same time, the report included a minority view from National Intelligence Officer for Cyber Christopher Porter, who “assessed that China took at least some steps to undermine Trump’s reelection chances,” the report noted, “primarily through social media and official public statements and media.”

“The NIO agrees with the IC’s view that Beijing was primarily focused on countering anti-China policies, but assesses that some of Beijing’s influence efforts were intended to at least indirectly affect U.S. candidates, political processes, and voter preferences,” the assessment added. It then sought to explain the difference of opinion, stating, “This view differs from the IC assessment because it gives more weight to indications that Beijing preferred former Trump’s defeat and the election of a more predictable member of the establishment instead, and that Beijing implement some — and later increased — its election influence efforts, especially over the summer of 2020. The NIO assesses these indications are more persuasive than other information indicating that China decided not to intervene.”

The report found with less controversy that Russia and Iran took opposite sides in their efforts to influence the election. Russian President Vladimir Putin used “a range of Russian government organizations” to conduct influence operations “aimed at denigrating” President Joe Biden’s candidacy, the report said. Iran, meanwhile, “carried out a multi-pronged covert influence campaign” to undermine Trump’s candidacy “without directly promoting his rivals.”

Still, the report noted, those foreign actors were not consistently partisan. While Russia favored Trump, the report said, Russian actors “criticized” him when he took certain foreign policy actions, including the 2020 killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, which were “at odds with Russia’s preferences.”

The report also said foreign actors including Cuba, Venezuela, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group “took some steps” to influence the election, though it did not describe those measures.

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