Donald Trump Accuses China Of Interfering In 2016 Presidential Elections

U.S. President Donald Trump has for the first time claimed that China also interfered in the 2016 presidential elections, in addition to Russia.

During a recent interview on CBS News’s 60 Minutes programme, when the interviewer asked Trump if he believed Russians meddled in the 2016 elections, Trump said he thinks both China and Russia had interfered in the elections.

“They (Russians) meddled. But I think China meddled too,” Trump said. “I think China meddled also. And I think, frankly, China…is a bigger problem.”

The US President said that he has no intentions of diverting the entire Russia thing by taking China’s name in the matter.

“I’m saying Russia, but I’m also saying China,” he said.

This is not the first time that Trump has accused China of interfering in the country’s internal affairs. Back in September, during a UN Security Council meeting in New York, Trump had alleged that China was trying to interfere in the 2018 mid-term polls. He said that China is doing so to ensure that he doesn’t get re-elected as the president.

Meanwhile, Cui Tiankai, who is China’s ambassador to the U.S., has straightaway denied the allegations that accuses his country of interfering in next month’s congressional elections.

In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Tiankai said all the accusations put forward by the US President are completely baseless. He said that one of the fundamental principles of China’s foreign policy is non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and that his country has been consistent in this position.

Talking about the ongoing trade war between the US and China, Cui said it was not China who started imposing duties first.

“It’s important to notice who started this trade war,” he said. “We never wanted this. But if someone started a trade war against us, we have to respond and defend our own interests.”