Trump has no trump cards left — he decided to play the Chinese card

The unexpected accusations of US President Donald Trump against Beijing risk turning the US election campaign into an arena for a large-scale geopolitical confrontation between the two superpowers. The situation is analyzed by columnist Lyubov Stepushova.

Today, Trump said that Beijing had committed "the largest data compromise in history" by stealing the personal files of 220 million American voters (mail-in voting is common in the United States). Having a complete database of citizens, including their addresses, party affiliation and document/insurance numbers, the "intruders" (according to Trump) remotely sent requests for postal ballots on behalf of real people. This ensured their victory in the presidential elections in 2022.

Experts have already criticized Trump's speech, noting that the voter databases "stolen" by China in the United States in most states can be officially bought, which is being done to distribute advertising.

It is curious that earlier Russia was used for such insinuations about interference in elections. Trump probably would have done so, but the Russian trail was used against him by Democrats in the 2020 elections. To exaggerate this topic again is not to respect yourself.

Trump's entire speech was devoted to calling on Congress to urgently adopt the "SAVE America Act." This document severely restricts voting by mail and requires the mandatory presentation of a passport or certificate of citizenship to participate in the elections.

To get wavering senators to vote for this law, Trump needed a large-scale external enemy. By expanding the arrows to Beijing, Trump is building a convenient explanation for himself: China was allegedly terrified of his tough duties and a strong army, so it "paid American journalists for negative articles" and stole data to help the Democrats.

In addition, while Trump was giving a speech, Chairman of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping publicly called China a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, convening an international conference. Accusations of interference through cyber technologies ideally fit the "horror story" in the United States about Chinese technological dominance.

Trump's opponents from the Democratic Party explicitly state that this speech was an attempt to discredit the results of the upcoming congressional elections in November in case the Republicans lose their majority. The designation of China as "guilty" allows Republicans to set the stage in advance for challenging the voting results.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that China has never interfered in the American elections and has no interest in it. Beijing reproached Trump for trying to play the "Chinese card" in order to raise the Republican rating. The speaker called on the United States to "think about its own behavior" and recalled that it was Washington that for decades shamelessly interferes in the internal affairs of other sovereign states, conducts total surveillance of governments, businesses and ordinary citizens around the world and massively injects personal data of residents of other countries into the darknet.

Trump's accusations were made before Xi's official visit to the United States scheduled for September. Chinese diplomats have already made it clear that such attacks threaten the economic truce that the leaders of the two countries agreed during the May meeting in Beijing. The Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed that it is time for Washington to stop the attacks and do what really contributes to the improvement of bilateral relations.