Trump accuses China of meddling in midterm elections
Updated : 09:53
US President Donald Trump claimed at an address to the UN on Wednesday that China is working against him attempting to interfere in November midterm elections.
"Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election coming up in November against my administration," Trump said at the UN Security Council.
He also said China were meddling in the election because they felt threatened by him, since he is “the only president who has ever challenged them on trade”.
"We are winning on trade. We are winning at every level. We don't want them to meddle or interfere in our upcoming election,” he added.
China's representative on the Security Council Wang YI, denied attempts to interfere in US elections and said: "China has all along followed the principle of non-interference in other countries' domestic affairs. This is a tradition of Chinese foreign policy. We do not and will not interfere in any countries' domestic affairs.
“We refuse to accept any unwarranted accusations against China, and we call upon other countries to also observe the purposes of the UN charter and not to interfere in other countries' internal affairs."
Later on Wednesday, Trump tweeted an image of what appeared to be a recent China Daily-sponsored insert in an Iowa-based newspaper and said: “China is actually placing propaganda ads in the Des Moines Register and other papers, made to look like news. That's because we are beating them on trade, opening markets, and the farmers will make a fortune when this is over!"
A senior administration official who investigated the claim on Wednesday offered no concrete evidence that this activity was taking place.
A new round of tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese goods went into effect this week at Trump's order. The move escalated the trade war between the US and China, and Trump warned he would slap additional tariffs should Beijing retaliate.
China did retaliate, with a new round of tariffs on $60bn of US goods that will be on goods such as liquefied natural gas, which some observers said was targeted towards states loyal to the US president.