{"id":1548008,"date":"2024-03-11T21:20:23","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T21:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/influence-2024-election-03112024165543.html"},"modified":"2024-03-11T21:20:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T21:20:23","slug":"us-intelligence-beijing-may-try-to-influence-2024-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/11\/us-intelligence-beijing-may-try-to-influence-2024-election\/","title":{"rendered":"US intelligence: Beijing may try to influence 2024 election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Beijing has improved its ability to covertly spread disinformation and may try to influence America\u2019s 2024 presidential election, according to a report issued Monday by the U.S. intelligence community.<\/span><\/p>\n

The annual <\/span>worldwide threat assessment<\/span><\/a> says Beijing is \u201cexpanding its global covert influence posture to better support\u201d the goals of the Chinese Communist Party, with the aim \u201cto sow doubts about U.S. leadership, undermine democracy, and extend Beijing\u2019s influence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

China has been \u201cintensifying efforts to mold U.S. public discourse,\u201d the report says, with a focus on shifting how Americans view Chinese sovereignty claims over Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and the Xinjiang region, where the United States has accused Beijing of genocide.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in the coming months, the report adds, the machinery of Beijing\u2019s online influence operations may be increasingly concentrated on impacting the Nov. 5 presidential election, which looks set to again pit President Joe Biden against former President Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe PRC may attempt to influence the U.S. elections in 2024 at some level because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions,\u201d it says, using an acronym for the People\u2019s Republic of China.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chinese state actors, it says, \u201chave increased their capabilities to conduct covert influence operations and disseminate disinformation\u201d and already have a track record of using artificial intelligence to generate political content on TikTok targeted at Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChina is demonstrating a higher degree of sophistication in its influence activity,\u201d the report says. \u201cTikTok accounts run by a PRC propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Beijing sets limits on these activities\u201d this year, it continues, \u201cindividuals not under its direct supervision may attempt election influence activities they perceive are in line with Beijing\u2019s goals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Balancing act<\/b><\/p>\n

Any influence attempts, though, would likely be hard to detect, leaders of the intelligence community told U.S. lawmakers on Monday during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing to accompany the report.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ENG_CHN_GlobalThreatsHearing_03112023.2.jpg\"\n
From left, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director William Burns, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh and Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Brett Holmgren testify before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the \"Annual Worldwide Threats Assessment\" in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., March 11, 2024. (Mandel Ngan\/AFP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said that while Chinese President Xi Jinping \u201cwas convinced that the United States will not tolerate a powerful China,\u201d he was also biding his time and has been seeking to avoid any tensions since his <\/span>summit<\/span><\/a> with Biden last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Xi \u201cseeks to ensure China can maintain positive ties to the United States, and will likely continue to do so this year,\u201d Haines said, because \u201cstability in our relationship is important to [China\u2019s] capacity to attract foreign direct investment\u201d amid growing economic problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an exchange with Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida and his party\u2019s top member on the intelligence committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he was worried by the ways that TikTok, one of the most popular social media apps in America, could be used.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ENG_CHN_GlobalThreatsHearing_03112023.3.jpg\"\n
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on the \"Annual Worldwide Threats Assessment\" in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., March 11, 2024. (Saul Loeb\/AFP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Rubio posed a hypothetical scenario in which TikTok\u2019s Chinese parent company ByteDance was approached by Beijing and told, \u201cWe want you to change your algorithm so Americans start seeing videos that hurt this candidate or help that candidate in the upcoming election.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cByteDance would have to do that under Chinese law,\u201d Rubio said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat's my understanding,\u201d Wray said. \u201cThat kind of influence operation \u2026 [is] extraordinarily difficult to detect, which is part of what makes the national security concerns represented by TikTok so significant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

TikTok, which is the fourth most downloaded app on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, is currently the target of a bipartisan effort by U.S. lawmakers to pass <\/span>legislation<\/span><\/a> that could force ByteDance to divest its ownership to avoid a ban on the app.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, TikTok has <\/span>strenuously denied<\/span><\/a> being instructed by Beijing to influence public discourse in the United States. China\u2019s Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Edited by Malcolm Foster<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \n \n


\r\nThis content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia<\/a> and was authored by By Alex Willemyns for RFA.
<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China allegedly used AI to generate political content on TikTok during America\u2019s 2022 midterm elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29440,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46081,2242,6946,1841,42620,43099,12826,1863,785,27149,27150,43306],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548008"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29440"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1548009,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548008\/revisions\/1548009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}