Mud slung at China again fails to stick

This is an editorial from China Daily.

In yet another move to demonize China, US intelligence agencies have accused the country of seeking to shape the outcome of specific races in the United States' 2022 midterm elections, which they claim reflects a more aggressive approach by Beijing to try to influence US politics.

The declassified assessment, released on Tuesday by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said the Chinese government "tacitly approved efforts to try to influence a handful of midterm races involving members of both US political parties".

Yet shooting that argument in the foot, the document also said Beijing believed Congress would remain "adversarial" toward China regardless of which party was in power, leaving people wondering why Beijing would go to so much trouble and risk to bet on something that would not bring any benefit to China.

The absurdity of the report is further revealed in the assumption that Chinese officials chose to ramp up operations aimed at shaping US policy last year "because they did not expect the current administration to retaliate as severely as they feared in 2020".

This is nonsensical given the hard-line that Congress has taken toward China, which offers little wriggle room for the administration regardless of its stripe. Indeed, the Joe Biden administration has doubled down on its predecessor's tough China stance, continuing the trade war, intensifying the attack on the technological front, and trying to tighten the restraining bonds of its alliance-knotted containment; moves that have already dramatically frayed Sino-US ties.

China has rejected the accusation of malign midterm influence, with a spokesman for its embassy in Washington describing the US report as "groundless" and "fabricated out of thin air". The attempts to denigrate China fly in the face of the fact that China has always adhered to the principle of noninterference in any other country's internal affairs.

Yet there is no denying the fiction of China sticking its nose into the internal affairs of other countries has become an increasingly popular frightener among some politicians in Western countries.

The Scott Morrison administration claimed that Chinese spies sought to fund candidates for Australia's Labor opposition party in the 2022 federal election. The United Kingdom's security agency MI5 issued a warning last year claiming an alleged Chinese agent had infiltrated Parliament to interfere in UK politics. And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered a probe in March into alleged Chinese interference in the country's 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

But not one of these accusations targeting China has ever been substantiated. This, however, does not prevent the China hawks in these countries persisting with their give-a-dog-a-bad-name-to-hang-him tricks. No doubt more tall stories will be forthcoming to try and tarnish China's international image and fool people into believing the country poses a serious threat to their countries' national security.

Fortunately they cannot fool all the people all the time.