US Vice President Mike Pence today accused China of using "evil efforts" to interfere in the November 6 US legislative election and to want to get rid of Donald Trump. In accentuating White House pressure against Beijing, the Republican condemned the eastern country for expelling an American ship into the South Sea and for aiding Venezuela.
Pence has taken up the accusations made by Trump himself at the UN Security Council last week. Both countries are already facing a trade war, which involves exchanging hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods, and in disputes over cyber activities, Taiwan's sovereignty and freedom of movement on the seas.
"China has launched an unprecedented effort to influence American public opinion, (November) elections and the whole environment for the 2020 presidential election," said the vice president at the Hudson Institute, Washington's conservative think tank.
"China interferes with American democracy. To put it plainly, China wants a different American president, "he said.
By changing the composition of the two houses of Congress, the November legislative elections could give the majority to the Democratic opposition. In this most adverse environment, Trump will face much more of the resistance to approving his projects and decisions in the second half of his term: his re-election in 2020 is also risky.
In his quest to boost Beijing's intrusion, Mike Pence stressed that Russian interference in US policy "is little compared to what China does in this country." The Russian case, however, is under federal investigation by the team of special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who also ascertain whether there was collusion between Moscow and the Trump election campaign team in 2016. The American president calls this investigation "witch-hunt ".
