China has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Beijing sought to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, calling it a “complete fabrication”.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a July 17 briefing that the allegation was part of a campaign directed against China. According to him, Beijing has never interfered in U.S. elections and has had no interest in doing so.
Trump made the allegation a day earlier during an address to the nation from the White House. He claimed that China had illegally obtained the data of approximately 220 million American voters. The U.S. president described the incident as an unprecedented threat to election security and also accused intelligence officials of concealing information.
According to CBS News, a significant portion of U.S. voter registration data is publicly or commercially available. Access to such information, therefore, does not in itself provide the ability to influence election results.
A 2021 assessment by the U.S. intelligence community found no evidence that any foreign actor had attempted to alter the technical process of the 2020 election. The same document stated that China was likely continuing to collect information on American voters, public opinion, political parties, candidates and their staff.
The dispute has resurfaced against the backdrop of relative stability in U.S.-China relations. Trade tensions between the two sides, which escalated in 2025, temporarily eased after Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in May 2026.
