China has increased US election influence in 2022, the intelligence report said

The Chinese government has stepped up its efforts to influence US politics in the 2022 elections. according to a new report released MondayAnd intelligence officials are trying to figure out whether Beijing is preparing to further intensify these activities in next year’s presidential elections.

U.S. intelligence agencies in 2022 have not observed a foreign leader leading an interference campaign against the United States in the same way that Russia did in 2016. But, the report said, the US government found a range of countries engaged in some form of influence operations.

And Chinese authorities tacitly approved operations to influence a handful of political races in the United States in 2022, according to the report, which reflects the joint intelligence community analytical assessment.

The intelligence community has already begun preparing for influence efforts in the 2024 presidential election, which officials predict will be much more intense than 2022, with both China and Russia potentially seeking to carry out major operations.

In an interview this month, Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, the head of U.S. Cyber ​​Command and director of the National Security Agency, said 50 people at the two organizations he leads were “working together to generate insights” for the next elections. A key question, he said, is whether China will step up its work or change its tactics.

“What is China’s role in 2024?” said General Nakasone. “How do they get in? Is it a Russian model? Is it a model they did in 2022? Is it something we haven’t seen before?”

The report showed that China focused mainly on a few races. Although it provided few details, U.S. officials have repeatedly highlighted how China moved against a candidate for Congress in New York over his support of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

The Chinese officials who sought to influence the election operated under the long-term leadership of the leadership and worked against officials perceived to be against the Chinese government. But the report also said that leaders in China had instructed officials to focus their influence operations on Congress, believing it to be “a locus of anti-China activity.”

The Chinese campaigns were intended to portray the United States as chaotic, ineffective and unrepresentative, the report said. But China’s leaders did not allow a “comprehensive” effort because they were wary of the consequences if it were exposed.

Still, the report said, Chinese interference was more important in 2022 than during the presidential race two years earlier because “they did not expect the current administration to retaliate as severely in 2020 as they feared.”

The report’s explanation of that conclusion has not been released and remains redacted in the version released to the public.

Since the 2022 elections, China has been experimenting with artificial intelligence to spread disinformation, General Nakasone said.

The report also shows that Russia tried to denigrate Democrats during the 2022 election, largely because of their support for Ukraine, which Russian forces invaded in February of that year.

“Moscow has included in its propaganda themes designed to weaken U.S. support for Ukraine,” the report said, “emphasizing how election influence operations are a subset of broader influence activities.”

Senior intelligence officials have said that Russia was not as active in 2022 because senior officials there were distracted by the war in Ukraine. But many intelligence officials believe Russia is likely to try to ramp up its operations in 2024 as aid to Ukraine has become a more divisive political issue.

Moreover, much of Russia’s ability to influence elections was orchestrated by companies controlled by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, including the Internet Research Agency. Mr Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in August after his failed uprising and march on Moscow.

U.S. officials said they were unsure how easily Russian officials would be able to interfere in the election without Mr. Prigozhin and in the apparent demise of the Internet Research Agency.

The intelligence community concluded that foreign governments have largely given up on directly tampering with votes or hacking election infrastructure. Instead, they believe that influence campaigns are more effective.